Courtesy of a reader, here is an LA Times article from 1990 about Obama’s Harvard Law Review experience that I hadn’t seen before. The only revelation? Some details about a research paper Obama wrote for Laurence Tribe on abortion. I’m guessing that this was research for Tribe’s book Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes, which appeared in 1990, and in which Tribe acknowledges Obama’s research assistance.
But what truly distinguishes Obama from other bright students at Harvard Law, Tribe said, is his ability to make sense of complex legal arguments and translate them into current social concerns. For example, Tribe said, Obama wrote an insightful research article showing how contrasting views in the abortion debate are a direct result of cultural and sociological differences [like pro-life people who are bitter over their economic circumstances and therefore cling to religion? Just kidding, but it would be interesting to see the paper. If this paper did indeed find its way into the book in modified form, it’s likely the material that starts at page 238, “How We See and Talk to One Another.”].