Opinion: Takeaways From My Obama Interview

Opinion: Takeaways From My Obama Interview

Ezra KleinInterviewing in Washington, D.C. 🎤

“What we saw after George Floyd’s murder was a useful bit of truth-telling,” Obama told me. “I think [it] opened people’s eyes to a renewed way of thinking about how incomplete the process of reckoning has been in this country, when it comes to race.”

Opinion: Takeaways From My Obama Interview

Ezra KleinInterviewing in Washington, D.C. 🎤

Obama on Biden

The former president sees the current administration as building on policies developed while he was in office.

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Obama and I also discussed the role that policy can play in changing the way people vote, and how that might play out now that Joe Biden is president.

Opinion: Takeaways From My Obama Interview

Ezra KleinInterviewing in Washington, D.C. 🎤

I told Obama I was struck by how he described his approach to persuasion in his recent book, “A Promised Land.” He said, “It actually gives me more conviction rather than less, if I listened to somebody else’s argument rather than just shutting it off.”

Opinion: Takeaways From My Obama Interview

Ezra KleinInterviewing in Washington, D.C. 🎤

Why Obama refused to call out the Tea Party on some issues

The former president often had to hold his tongue.

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Sometimes, he admitted, he dodged arguments he wanted to have.

Politics isn’t just about persuasion. It’s also about winning — and holding — power, he said. Sometimes that requires restraint.

Opinion: Takeaways From My Obama Interview

Ezra KleinInterviewing in Washington, D.C. 🎤

‘The price of doing business’

The former president’s views on America’s tradition of ‘two steps forward, one step back.’

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I asked Obama about the failures of his efforts at persuasion, central among them being succeeded by Donald Trump.

Opinion: Takeaways From My Obama Interview

Ezra KleinInterviewing in Washington, D.C. 🎤

About those aliens ...

Would proof of extraterrestrial life change the way Obama understands the world?

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After Obama admitted he didn’t know what was on those U.F.O. videos either, I couldn’t resist asking him how proof of the existence of aliens might change his politics.

Listen to the podcast for our full conversation.