Oct 12, 2012 02:40 PM EDT
Presidential Debate Over, Biographer Explains President Obama's Poor Performance

For many supporters of President Barack Obama, the President's showing in the first presidential debate Oct. 3 was exasperating, confounding. "What happened? Who is this guy?" many wondered.  But don't count writer David Maraniss among the confused masses. The author of "Barack Obama: The Story," says he learned Obama's weaknesses while he was researching him for his biography, and that those same aspects bubbled up in the first debate. Obviously, things didn't go great that evening.

"I think it was sort of a lot of elements that came together in the worst possible way for him," said Maraniss, whose book came out earlier in 2012.

And just what's to blame for President Obama's poor performance in the debate? Overconfidence, a staunch hatred for the concept and formality of presidential debates, and an aversion to confrontation all contributed to a lackluster showing, according to Maraniss. But he does expect President Obama to ramp up his aggression and energy for the next debate.

Because President Obama doesn't relish confrontation, he often fails to attack his opponents on issues when he has an easy opportunity, according to Maraniss. 

As we saw in the 2008 race, President Obama can be a fierce competitor.

Maraniss should know what he's talking about. The author specializes in writing revealing biographies of political figures. His Bill Clinton biography, "First in His Class," is widely regarded as the definitive word on the life of the former President.

Clinton was an easier subject to cover, though, admits Maraniss.  The author reportedly felt like he was working more familiar territory in general while researching Slick Willy. Partly because they were contemporaries, and Clinton's motivating drive was easier for him to articulate, says Maraniss.  

Altogether, Obama is far more enigmatic, Maraniss said. This is partly because while Obama shares some of Clinton's characteristics, such as his resolve to succeed, he's apparently more of a "participant-observer" than the majority of politicians, a quality that can often mean he's removed from the immediate circumstances of his life.

Maraniss didn't approach writing "Barack Obama: The Story" like most traditional biographies. He says he was more interested in understanding how the random events of Obama's life made him the president he is today, rather than trying to define him, or stick a label on him.

"The book is a rich journey through the lives of his parents, Obama's childhood and even the more intimate recollections of former girlfriends," says USA Today.

Synopsis via Simon and Schuster:

In Barack Obama: The Story, David Maraniss has written a deeply reported generational biography teeming with fresh insights and revealing information, a masterly narrative drawn from hundreds of interviews, including with President Obama in the Oval Office, and a trove of letters, journals, diaries, and other documents.

The book unfolds in the small towns of Kansas and the remote villages of western Kenya, following the personal struggles of Obama's white and black ancestors through the swirl of the twentieth century. It is a roots story on a global scale, a saga of constant movement, frustration and accomplishment, strong women and weak men, hopes lost and deferred, people leaving and being left. Disparate family threads converge in the climactic chapters as Obama reaches adulthood and travels from Honolulu to Los Angeles to New York to Chicago, trying to make sense of his past, establish his own identity, and prepare for his political future.

"Barack Obama: The Story" chronicles as never before the forces that shaped the first black president of the United States and explains why he thinks and acts as he does. Much like the author's classic study of Bill Clinton, First in His Class, this promises to become a seminal book that will redefine a president.

"Barack Obama: The Story" is available now. 

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