"... the next year, when other students implored him to run for the presidency, he demurred; he wanted to return to community work in Chicago, he said, and the credential would be no help. Late in the process, he finally agreed, saying he might be uniquely able to heal the review’s partisan divisions. ..."

Reported by Tammerlin Drummond, then a bored young local news reporter for an out-of-town regional office of the LA Times. She heard from a friend about the new Law Review president and bugged her editors until they agreed to fly her from California to do a face-to-face interview.

Plenty here for everyone, supporters and critics alike. Eighteen years ago Obama was drawing fire from the Right for being to liberal, from the Left for being too cozy with conservatives, and from the black community for not being black enough.

Several tasty tidbits of reportage art, including this snappy lede with a prescience any writer would be pleased to have penned:

Barack Obama stares silently at a wall of fading black-and-white photographs in the muggy second-floor offices of the Harvard Law Review. He lingers over one row of solemn faces, his predecessors of 40 years ago.

All are men. All are dressed in dark-colored suits and ties. All are white.

Not a bad piece; this Drummond woman has some potential heself.