At about the same age, McCain was a real partier and woman chaser, while he was at Annapolis and after when he was taking flight training (see “The Nightinggale’s Song”).

At about the same age, George W. Bush was a young man taking flight training for the ANG and also something of a lady’s man.

At about the same age, Bill Clinton was already politically active, while getting a law degree. And also chasing women.

At about the same age, George H.W. Bush was a combat pilot in the US Navy during WWII, and came home to marry his sweetheart, Barbara.

At about the same age, Ronald Reagan had graduated from Eureka College and was a sportscaster on the radio.

Obama strikes me as an aesthetic, who would be just as happy with little material goods in life and interested in intellectual pursuits. He has become what he is now, in pursuit of political power to realize his ideals. He is a strange mixture of idealism and hard-eyed political pragmatism, who isn’t afraid to play hard ball in politics to achieve his political end, however noble and idealistic they may be (in his mind).
In his own mind, he feels justified in letting his campaign and surrogates do all manner of things, to achieve his ends.

The ends justify the means? Where have we heard this before?