The best articles description have read on Barack Obama is:

“He is a Third World anthropologist profiling Americans, in but not of the American system. ” – http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/JI03Aa02.html

His mother, Ann Dunham, was an Anthropologist also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Dunham

Barack Obama, in what Wretchard quoted, and throughout his life is on a journey of discovery: To discover himself & also to discover what America is.

And he approaches this analytically, like an Anthropologist.

This, as in many other things, is why he is the mirror image of Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin, instead of analyzing American life, simply lives the American life.

November 4, 2008, will present America with a fascinating choice.