Man of purpose...

 ...All the President's identities

When Obama leaves NY to become a community organiser in Chicago, he begins to find purpose and identity, and though his efforts at mobilising people are not as successful as he claimed in his memoir (a magazine journalist is largely responsible for the city administration’s response), what becomes clear is that two-and-a-half years later, when he decides to leave his job and go to Harvard Law school, realisation dawns on those who work closely with him: that this stint as community organiser was part of a plan. The others, rooted in the community, could not think of moving on; nothing stopped Obama and he left. As Maraniss states, “Perhaps his behaviour was not so much passive as strategic.” The moral of the story: to become the most powerful person in the world, you must get started very early.