UM: Obama

CNN looks at the importance of Barack Obama’s “likeability” in his role as president and in the ability to push his agenda. The article quotes Vincent Hutchings, a UM associate professor of political science, regarding Obama’s comments about the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.: ”Obviously, he had no authority over that whatsoever, but as the chief communicator … they [the media] ask him for ceremonial and symbolic reasons.” [Source]