"Everybody has this Obama moment when they first see him and he impresses them. I had that moment way before lots of other people did," David Mendell tells Globe Life's Siri Agrell in How Obama ruined my life .
"I would tell my friends, there's this politician that I'm following around and I think this guy is going to wind up close to being the president one day, if not president. And they all kind of laughed at me. Now they all forget that they argued with me."
If I was a cardiologist, I don't think anybody would try and tell me they knew more about how the heart operates. But people do say, 'No, this is the thing about Obama.' I get that a lot."
If anyone knows what Barack Obama is like, it's David Mendell. The Chicago Tribune reporter has been covering Mr. Obama and his career since his successful run for U.S. Senate and has recently released a biography of the Democratic presidential candidate, Obama: From Promise to Power.
Mr. Mendell was online earlier to take your questions on Mr. Obama.
Your questions and Mr. Mendell's answers appear at the bottom of this page.
Mr. Mendell began writing about urban issues and politics for the Chicago Tribune in 1998. During his eight-year tenure at the Tribune, Mendell has also covered breaking national news including the Columbine High School shootings and the Seattle riots spurred by meetings of the World Trade Organization.
Mr. Mendell's research for Obama: From Promise to Power included exclusive interviews with Mr. Obama's closest aides, mentors, political adversaries, and family-most notably his wife, Michelle.
Mr. Mendell lives in Oak Park, Illinois.
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Rasha Mourtada, Globe Life web editor:Thank you, Mr. Mendell, for joining us today. We've got lots of questions, so let's get started.
RL, Canada: Obama is a polished speaker but he doesn't say anything, it's all pie-in-the-sky feel good stuff. Is he like Bill Clinton who would have been a better game show host than a president?
David Mendell: RL, you certainly are not a fan of the Democrats!
I would agree that Obama, like most highly skilled politicians, is very adept at speaking in non-specific terms. In fact, in my book, I write that this is perhaps his most ingenious quality - being able to connect with voters and eliciting an emotional reaction without being specific enough that he alienates voters who might disagree with him on policy matters.
As for Bill Clinton being a better game-show host, I think Clinton certainly would have thrived in that role. Many loyal Democrats in the United States, however, are happy that he went into politics.
Adrian White, Fonthill, Canada: Would you be able to articulate Mr. Obama's religious beliefs, especially as he appears to be up against some strong opposition from what I might term the 'evangelical' voters in America?
David Mendell: I would not say that Obama is facing "strong opposition" from evangelical voters - and I assume you mean evangelical "Christian" voters. In fact, he spoke at a large evangelical Christian Church in California last year and was well received.
Obama is a devout Christian who attends church at the Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's South Side. The UCC is one of the more liberal Christian denominations, being among the first churches to ordain women and gays as ministers. Obama gravitated to that church largely because of its liberal tendencies. He also was drawn to Trinity's pastor, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, who is a bombastic, charismatic and passionate advocate of social justice for blacks and homosexuals. Wright was an excellent interview for my book and he was a regular counsellor to Obama when the senator was working as a community organizer in Chicago in his mid 20s.
On the campaign trail, Obama would regularly keep a Christian Bible beside him in the door of the campaign SUV and I would occasionally see him reading it between campaign stops. He is one of the few Democratic politicians who seem comfortable citing Christian teachings along the campaign trail and talking about the intersection of politics and religion.
That said, while Obama believes that religion and politics should not be an oxymoron, he also believes that government should be run in a secular manner. He doesn't, for example, encourage prayer in public schools.
Zach A, Delhi India: I have been a fan of Obama since the convention in 2004. He is charismatic, intelligent and oozes sincerity. I think his election would be a positive step for American foreign relations. Not being American, domestic policies do not concern me much. When I mention to people that, were I American, I would vote for Obama in a heartbeat, I am often questioned on his inexperience. People say that his policies are not as good as Hillary's and that he has never faced much adversity or even done very much as a politician. How do I respond to these questions? What has Obama done as a senator, or as a state politician to prepare him to be president?
David Mendell: First, I'd refer you to his campaign website ( BarackObama.com ). You can familiarize yourself with his resume there.
As a state legislator in Illinois, Obama was known as a traditional liberal. He passed a great deal of legislation, including bills that expanded health care coverage to poor families, that reformed the death penalty system in Illinois to ensure that people charged with death-penalty crimes had their interviews with authorities videotaped, and that strengthened campaign ethics rules in Illinois.
In Washington, Obama's resume is much thinner, which has left him open the charge of lacking national political experience. He's only been in the Senate three years and he spent nearly all of the last year on the campaign trail. But he touts his sponsorship of campaign ethics legislation that became law, as well as a law that reduced stockpiles of nuclear weapons.
Natalie Istead, Canada: Barack Obama's campaign seems to have some uncanny parallels to that of George W Bush in the 2000 election. Better medicare, more options for seniors, restoring America's place in the world, standing up for all Americans, hope for the future, better education, less partisan politics, and a new beginning were all promises (most unfulfilled) that Mr. Bush made in 2000. Do you think that Mr. Obama, with many of the same promises, will actually act on them?
David Mendell:All politicians, no matter their philosophical bent, make a lot of hollow promises. I think there will be immense pressure on the next president, especially if he or she is a Democrat, to push for expanded health care coverage for low- and middle-class Americans and withdraw troops from Iraq.
As far as Obama's promise of bipartisanship, I think he is genuine about reaching out to Republicans to reach consensus on thorny issues. He is a very civil man in personal situations, and that can go a long way toward harmony on a wider scale. Whether, as president, he can bridge that partisan divide in a country so bitterly divided over issues like national security, civil liberties, health care, abortion, globalism … well, that remains to be seen.
Neil Sullivan, Portland, U.S.: Just curious your thoughts, David. I'm surprised your book didn't do better as well, considering Obama fans are quite into reading whatever they can about him. Could this be because Obama has already written so eloquently and honestly about himself? It seems unusual for a biographer to have to compete against such a good autobiographer.
David Mendell: You are correct that I certainly had a monumental task to deliver something other than what Obama has already written. He's written more than 800 pages about himself, and I would agree that he is very eloquent writer. But Obama's books come from his perspective of Obama, and mine comes from my perspective of Obama. And there are few people who think more of Obama than he does of himself. So those two viewpoints obviously are a bit different. Especially in his second book, which he wrote as he mulled his presidential aspirations, Obama was very careful to remain politic in his writing. I was not confined by those parameters. My book also is not a work of self-promotion, as one could argue his second book is.
My book, I believe, offers a much more balanced and objective view of Obama and his accomplishments, as well as an insider's look at his aides and his family -- the people who helped to propel him to political stardom. I was fortunate enough to be assigned to his 2004 U.S. Senate campaign before he ascended to star status. So I had unfettered access to see the real Obama on a daily, if not hourly, basis. No reporter has that kind of access to him any more.
I think my book has sold only modestly, at least so far, primarily because it was released last August when Obama's campaign was at a low point. I spent a lot of time during the launch in media interviews defending the survival of his candidacy rather than talking about the content of my book. Reporters continually asked me if I thought his campaign was in deep trouble - and it's not the best way to promote a book when you have to maintain that your subject still has political life in him. Obviously, given current events, I was correct in my assessment that his campaign had much more life to it.
I also think there might be something to the fact that my book is not a gushing portrayal of Obama, but it reveals both his strengths and weaknesses. One critic in England called it "refreshingly ungushing." I think, in some instances, some Obama devotees would rather not be bothered with reading about their idol's shortcomings - they would much rather read his idealistic, eloquent prose than my fair-minded, journalistic assessments.
Also, even though my book was written for a major publisher (HarperCollins) my book has been advertised only online. Publishers of Obama's books took out full-page ads in the New York Times for his works.
Christine Woodley, Canada: Hillary Clinton criticizes Barack Obama by saying she is more prepared to immediately handle the problems that will be on the table the day after the election. My question is: assuming Mr. Obama is less experienced and prepared, who is on his team to bring him up to speed quickly and advise him on the insider workings of being President? And, assuming he has a good team, why doesn't he promote that when he is challenged on this point?
David Mendell:Obama actually has assembled an elite corps of policy advisers, many of whom ironically worked in the Clinton White House. Anthony Lake, for example, was a top foreign policy staffer for Bill Clinton and he is among Obama's chief counsellors. Many experienced hands in Washington signed up with Obama early, perhaps because in conversations with him they saw a serious politician who is devoted to learning the issues. As I detailed in my book, Obama is a policy wonk at heart. It is very difficult for him, for example, to break down complex issues into sound-bite political slogans because, in my assessment, he indeed feels a deep commitment to solving problems.
I think Obama is loath to tout his policy team for the same reasons other politicians don't. He needs to look like he is the one making decisions, the one who is leading, not his aides.
Lydia von Schreiber, Canada: Mr. Mendell, How do you think Barack Obama will be able to fulfill his promises of change. He will be facing a huge financial deficit. I guess in his past he has had to do some creative financing to get smaller projects off the ground. Thank you.
David Mendell:The immediate outlook for the American economy would appear grim. So yes, it will difficult for the next president (again, whoever he or she may be) to fulfill campaign promises of hope and prosperity. When it comes to "change" (the Obama slogan that has fast become the 2008 campaign buzzword - even Republican Mitt Romney has used it!), you certainly will see a different presidency from Obama than the current Bush administration. So in that respect, he will offer change.
Obama is a traditional American liberal in his soul, and he is very much a conciliator, not someone who thrives on ideological fights or battles, be they political or personal. So I think the tone coming from the White House will change dramatically in that respect.
MT, WATERLOOIAN Canada: Welcome to Canada's Globe and Mail, Mr. Mendell, and thank you for taking our questions today. As I've been following the US Presidential candidates, Senator Obama's wife, Michelle Obama, has stood out as an equally energetic and compelling political element accompanying Senator Obama. She seems to have a confident, captivating and competent aura about her while addressing audiences on the campaign trail. Would you foretell a more politically significant role for Michelle in the future?
David Mendell: I would agree that Michelle has been an asset on the campaign trail - and a great asset to Obama at home. He calls her "the rock at home."
In my first long interview with Michelle in late 2003, it was clear that she was an intelligent, warm, charismatic woman in her own right. She has a great capacity for making people feel comfortable around her. Her counselling role to her husband cannot be overestimated, although, until the presidential campaign, she had largely stayed out of any kind of public or prominent role in his political life. He would occasionally ask her professional questions, such as how she felt about the hiring of a certain adviser, etc.
But when Michelle offered an opinion, her husband nearly always followed it. For example, I detail the following story in my book: When Obama's chief adviser, David Axelrod, approached Obama with his "Yes, We Can" theme in his Senate race in 2003, Obama thought the phrase was trite, and he turned up his nose at it. When Obama asked Michelle her opinion, however, she gave a big thumbs-up, and said it was wonderful catchphrase that would appeal to African-American voters, especially. When Michelle told him that it would play in the black community, he told Axelrod to go for it. Now, it has become such a popular mantra for Obama that it has been set to music and video by the Black Eyed Peas and John Legend.
The couple has two young daughters (who are now 9 and 6) and Michelle has had primary responsible for raising them as Obama ambitiously strove for one political office after another. Because of this, her public role has been limited. But I suspect that she will become more influential among his political lieutenants should Obama win the presidency.
Rasha Mourtada, Globe Life web editor: Thank you, David, for coming online today. Any last thoughts you'd like to leave us with?
David Mendell: Thank you for inviting me and I appreciate all the smart questions. Whew!
I know my publisher would encourage me to scream to the world that my book is the definitive biography of Barack Obama and is a necessary read for anyone who wants to understand Obama, both myth and reality. But I have never been one for overstated self-promotion, so I'll refrain from that.