Obama biographer not surprised by poor debate showing

• David Maraniss is the author of "Barack Obama: The Story"
• He expects a more aggressive performance at next debate
• Say Obama more of a "participant-observer" than most presidents

NASHVILLE - Author David Maraniss saw aspects of Barack Obama's character that he'd experienced while penning the president's biography emerge in the Oct. 3 presidential debate, with predictably dismal results.

"I think it was sort of a lot of elements that came together in the worst possible way for him," said Maraniss, whose new book "Barack Obama: The Story" came out earlier this year.

Overconfidence, ambivalence about the gamesmanship needed to succeed in politics and an aversion to confrontation all contributed to a poor performance by the president. But Maraniss expects to see a more aggressive, energized president when the candidates meet again.

Fierce competitiveness is part of his character, too.

Looking into the soul of presidents, even while they're holding the nation's highest office, has become a specialty for Maraniss, who wrote "First in His Class," widely regarded as the definitive biography of former President Bill Clinton.

When Clinton was the subject, Maraniss said this week, the author found himself on more familiar ground. They were contemporaries, for one thing, and the drive that animated Clinton was easier to recognize.

Obama was tougher to read, Maraniss said, in part because, while the current president shares some of Clinton's hunger to succeed, he's more of a "participant-observer" than most politicians. That sometimes left him a step
removed from the immediate circumstances of his life.

Maraniss' goal in writing this book, he said, was less to define Obama than to understand the assortment of random events that made the president who he is.

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