Early in the primary season, a member of the audience at an Iowa rally asked Barack Obama what book he might recommend, other than his own. He mentioned Doris Kerns Goodwin's, Team of Rivals, about Lincoln. He said, reading the book, you realize what can happen in politics with great leadership in Washington. Although he was confident in his judgment and his moral bearings, he was extraordinarily humble when it came to looking for people around him that could do the job, even if they didn't like him - even if they were his opponents. So what he did was take all of his opponents and appointed them to his cabinet positions. They would argue with him and oppose him, but because they were good at their job, he didn't mind their independence, and they helped him guide the country through one of the biggest crises in our nation's history. He said, it reminds him of what can happen when you take yourself out of politics and remind yourself what you're doing it for.
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