Barack Obama reads my blog!

Back on February 20, a couple of weeks before the Ohio and Texas primaries, I wrote (excerpted):

Obama used to knock me out because, unlike every other politician, he didn’t give the same speech every time. His victory and concession speeches seemed freshly conceived for the occasion; they had ideas.

But I caught his act last night, after he won in Wisconsin. He’s now giving the same speech every time.

…The act needs new material.

Today’s Chicago Tribune contains extensive portions of a sit-down Obama had with the editorial board of the paper on March 14. Here’s what Obama has to say, regarding the outcome in Ohio and Texas:

So I actually think that after the 11 victories that we had right before Ohio and Texas, part of what happened was that what I was saying started getting stale because we didn’t have time to step out of it and [ask], “Is what I’m saying true? Am I connecting, getting at the heart of things or is it just becoming performance?” And I think it cost us a little bit…You’re passionate about it, going after it, you’re connecting with people and you’re just right there and then you win, and then there’s just this tendency to sort of just keep on doing the same things.

But the truth is this process is dynamic and you just can’t keep on doing the same thing.

If you go here, you can listen to an audio recording of the full interview.

Whether in print or in audio, Obama in this interview impresses me enormously. His answers are well thought-out and reflect an exceptional intelligence. In fact, the audio probably does him more justice. When you read him on the page, you can find things you might take exception to. When you hear him, you know exactly what he means, and what he means makes sense. (I’ve listened to substantial portions of the 92 minute audio; everything I’ve listened to made this consistent impression. And yes, I now believe him about Tony Rezko.)

Note to The Chicago Tribune: When a story is important enough to be on page one of your print edition, it ought to be somewhere on your web page. Incredibly, this interview isn’t. And trying all the logical submenus doesn’t get you to it either. Only when I typed “Obama interview” into the search box did I get a result that led me to it. Which is fine; I doggedly figured it out. But why demand that people become dogs?

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