President Obama鈥檚 vacation reading was announced recently, and the three authors likely to get sales boosts from the announcement are Lou Cannon, David Mitchell, and John Le Carr茅, authors of President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet, and Our Kind of Traitor, respectively. Also, on Christmas, the Washington Post reported that President Obama was reading Taylor Branch鈥檚 book about the Clinton presidency.
A number of analysts have suggested that these selections show that Obama is trying to become more of a man of the people. The 滨苍诲别辫别苍诲别苍迟鈥檚 Guy Adams the picks of 鈥渢he le Carr茅 and David Mitchell bestsellers are populist gestures; Mr. Obama鈥檚 previous reading lists, which included works by such authors as Thomas Friedman, are said to have been too dry and academic for Middle America.鈥滱 in the Australian suggests that Obama is 鈥渟tung by criticism he is aloof and out of touch鈥� and has therefore 鈥渢urned to the great communicator for inspiration.鈥�
I am not so sure. Having made a bit of a study of the meaning we can derive from presidential reading, I think that the choices reflect who Obama is and how he wants to be seen, but I don鈥檛 think he will be turning to populism anytime soon. With The Thousand Autumns, Obama is once again looking at a sprawling historical novel, as he did with this summer鈥檚 Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen. The Thousand Autumns has some cachet among the smart set, and Obama seems to enjoy the approval of that crowd. Furthermore, the New York Times described the Mitchell book as having 鈥渕eticulously reconstructed the lost world of Edo-era Japan,鈥� which does not strike me as characteristic of a populist reading selection.
As for the Reagan book: Obama, like Clinton, has demonstrated a tendency to read mainly books by liberal authors. (George W. Bush, in contrast, read a variety of works from both liberals and conservatives.) By reading Cannon, Obama may not be reading a conservative author, but at least he is reading about a conservative subject, which is progress, of a sort. More likely, though, he is looking to a great president for clues as to how he, too, can become a great president. Reagan鈥檚 communication skills were of course superb, but his policies had something to do with it as well, and Obama would have to take on some of Reagan鈥檚 ideology to learn the full lesson of Reagan. Everyone, left and right alike, can agree that this is unlikely to happen.
Le Carr茅 is typical vacation reading, and probably does not teach us all that much, although Obama may have been intrigued by the cameo appearance that his wife, Michelle, makes in the book. According to the New York Times鈥� Sheryl Gay Stolberg, 鈥渋n one passage, characters cannot visit the gardens of the Champs-脡lys茅es because 鈥楳ichelle Obama and her children are in town.鈥欌�
As for the Branch book about Clinton, the December 25 Washington Post report that it was on Obama鈥檚 list came more than two months after the New York Times鈥� Peter Baker reported that Obama was 鈥渟eeking guidance in presidential biographies,鈥� including the Branch book. Presumably, it is taking Obama a long while to get through the book鈥檚 720 pages. It is also possible that he does not read that many books when not on vacation. In a conversation with the New York Times鈥� Michael Powell, he admitted that one of the challenges of the presidency is that 鈥測ou have very little chance to really read. I basically floss my teeth and watch SportsCenter.鈥�
Regardless, Obama鈥檚 recent interest in Clinton may have been part of an early effort to begin his preparations for dealing with a GOP Congress. Looking to learn from the past to avoid mistakes is a good idea, but Obama is not the only one who stands to benefit from looking at the history of the Gingrich鈥揅linton showdowns. New House speaker John Boehner has an interest in this as well 鈥� he not only has studied the earlier interaction, but lived through it, and will presumably be prepared to face the Clinton playbook should Obama resort to using it.
As always, it is important not to read too much into presidential reading. As the interpretation of reading selections can vary widely, overthinking the selections by a president can backfire. Also, there is no rule that says that all of a president鈥檚 books need to be disclosed to the public. A president should pick books that he likes, and let the politics of the reading sort themselves out. The best thing to do, as Animal House鈥檚 Otter suggested about golf 鈥� which also occupied a great deal of Obama鈥檚 vacation 鈥� is to not 鈥渢hink of it as work. The whole point is just to enjoy yourself.鈥�