Light Rays on Saturdays: Obama v Romney... Study Their Time At Harvard Grad Schools

After all the histrionics, debates and fabricated hoo-hah, the match-up for the presidency in 2012 will be precisely what everyone has expected all along: President Barack Obama versus Mitt Romney. If you want to truly understand the nature of these two men, study the one thing they have in common: Harvard University graduate schools. These New York Times’ features – one from January 2007 exploring Obama’s time at Harvard Law and the other from December 2011 assessing Romney at Harvard Business – provide tremendous insights into the personalities and characters of the candidates.

By now, you have had your fill of the “look back,” “look ahead,” “best of,” “top 10” and “what to watch for” stories that inundate us at the end and start of every year, in every medium and media. There’s no evidence that many people pay attention to the vast majority of these stories. It’s breezy filler designed to fill space between ads and give editors and reporters well-deserved time off during the holidays. That’s why it was nice to see Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank review the accuracy of his predictions for 2011. The annual churn of year-end content would be significantly more interesting if all media held themselves publicly accountable in such fashion.

You’ll hear a lot about the Iowa presidential caucuses this coming week. Political junkies swear the caucuses are important – as a winnowing exercise, as a springboard to voting primaries in other states, as a place for candidates to drop resume bombs on each other, and as a test of retail political skills. Yet the winner in Iowa is seldom their party’s nominee. For a different perspective on the importance of Iowa, read these pieces published in the past week in The Washington Post and The New York Times. Each offers important context about the state that will dominate political news this week.

As we head into a new year, I want to thank everyone for reading Bending Light. Somehow, it manages to get about 150 to 200 page views per post, and I’m very grateful to know that you're out there. By far, the two most popular posts since Bending Light launched two months ago have been on Jerry Sandusky’s decision to interview with Bob Costas and the five things reporters and PR people have in common. The “Light Rays” compilations on Saturdays also seem pretty well-read. Thanks again for making Bending Light a choice in your online buffet. 

I wish Happy New Year to you all! See you in 2012.