Always Obama

Published in Público
(Portugal) on 18 October 2015
by Miguel Esteves Cardoso (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Rita Oliveira Almeida. Edited by Helaine Schweitzer.
Obama was not a disappointment. He may have failed to meet the expectations of everyone who voted for him — duh! — but since when is that mathematically and politically possible?

Obama is clever, good, generous, honest and as optimistic as he is realistic — an extremely rare combination. He will go down in history more for the things he did not do — for the mistakes he refused to perpetuate — than for the things he did in a political system that seems to have been designed to defeat any sort of Social-Democratic inclination. All U.S. presidents choose the advisers they want. Obama gets a lot of advice, but the decisions always seem to be his, after he has listened carefully to all the advice.

This week’s New York Review of Books features a conversation between President Obama and (the marvelous novelist) Marilynne Robinson. And this is just the first part of the conversation. The second part will follow in two weeks. One can read it for free at the magazine’s website. Obama’s smart idea was to be the interviewer. Although this interview, disguised as conversation, suffers from an excess of transcription, what stands out is Obama’s attention. Explaining that campaigns have a lot of downtime because of travel, Obama reveals that he spent some of his free time reading Robinson’s few and well-written novels.

Will the world and the U.S. lose Obama? Obviously not, in any way.


Obama não foi uma desilusão. Se não correspondeu - duh! - às expectativas de toda a gente que votou nele, desde quando é que isso era matemática e politicamente possível?

Obama é inteligente, bom, generoso, honesto e tão optimista como realista: uma raríssima combinação. Ficará na história mais pelas coisas que não fez - pelos erros que se recusou a perpetuar - do que pelas coisas que conseguiu, num sistema político que parece ter sido concebido para derrotar qualquer vaga inclinação no sentido da social-democracia.

Todos os presidentes dos EUA escolhem os conselheiros que querem. Obama aconselha-se muito mas as decisões parecem ser sempre dele, depois de ter ouvido atentamente todos os conselhos à disposição dele.

Esta semana o New York Review of Books dá a capa e a abertura à conversa do "President Obama" e da (excelente romancista) Marilynne Robinson. É só a primeira parte. Daqui a uma quinzena virá a segunda.

Lê-se de graça no website da revista. A ideia inteligente que Obama conseguiu pôr em prática foi ser ele a entrevistar a escritora.

Embora a entrevista, disfarçada de conversa, sofra de um excesso de transcrição o que salta à vista é a atenção de Obama. Explicando que as campanhas, por causa das viagens têm muito downtime, Obama revela que passou algumas dessas horas de intervalo a ler os romances (poucos e muito bem escritos) de Robinson.

Será que o mundo e os EUA vão perder Obama? Seja em que forma for, é claro que não.
This post appeared on the front page as a direct link to the original article with the above link .

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