Pandora is batting a perfect 1.000 for Seattlest HQ this morning with Kanye West's "Jesus Walks" as the seeder (does it get better than Outkast, Jay-Z, Talib Kweli, the GZA, and Missy Elliott on a Tuesday?). But what really put this morning over the top in terms of all-around greatness was finding this Wall Street Journal article about the writer's life, Obama, and the White House by local author Jonathan Raban, via Slog. An excerpt from Raban's essay:
In politics, "realism" is usually just another term for pragmatism, or Realpolitik. But "Dreams From My Father" suggests that for Obama the word is rooted less in a political than in a literary tradition, where it has a far richer meaning. It signifies the watchful eye and patiently attentive ear; a proper humility in the face of the multiplex character of human society; and, most of all, a belief in the power of the writer's imagination to comprehend and ultimately reconcile the manifold contradictions in his teeming world.
