Perhaps part of the difficulty has been Obama's campaign slogan about doing politics differently and his use (abuse?) of the word "change" as well as how those slogans have been interpreted by his followers. As others in this thread have pointed out, it's not surprising when a politician does campaign on vague generalities, but it has been surprising how much of a pass most of the media has given Obama compared to his rivals with respect to his campaign slogans. They aren't giving Palin a pass though. Not sure why the difference.
Anyway, here's a solid article on Obama's early political career from the New Yorker. Warning, it's long.
web page Making It c.
