This morning, I was reading a NYT article about Barack Obama and his virtuosity and self-discipline not only in politics, but his emotional and personal life. This is amazing to me because it seems almost impossible to do while in the public eye, having grown up in a generation of where most politicians are expected to deal with public skepticism and endless opportunities for scrutiny. I'm also amazed because self-discipline and self-control takes years to build, and he did this even before entering the public sphere of politics. He is known as a tempered, serious man with the ability to inspire.
Of what we know about him, what gets me about him, politics aside, is that his public life and private life essentially line up. Such a characteristic is completely different from the type of person we are used to seeing - someone who has completely dichotomized their private sphere from their public one. We are used to showmanship in the public arena. Someone like Obama is what our generation of skeptics and cynics have been waiting for... someone who is authentic, genuine, and driven by vision.
