but did not want to be the last.

Although people on the Law Review held diametrically opposed political views, Obama managed to reconcile their differences because his peers respected his judgment and his fairness.

Ogletree said that Obama crafted a team of strong writers from across the political spectrum, refusing to discriminate against those who held political views that ran couner to his own.

Instead of relying on tired partisan arguments, Obama consistently approached any problem with the same thoughtfulness and precision that he applies to work in the Oval Office, Miner said.

Obama’s experience reconciling differences may have aided his navigating of the Washington poliical scene, but pundits have virulently criticized the president for the increasingly partisan tenor of Washington during the last four years.

Despite what some critics have said, Ogletree believes that Obama has successfully reached across the aisle time and again on issues that are important to the American people—particularly health care and the economic stimulus package.

And, if elected to office again, Obama—who shaped and was shaped, like many Harvard students, by his experience in Cambridge—will continue to draw upon his years at HLS, Olgetree said.

—Staff writer Laura K. Reston can be reached at laurareston@college.harvard.edu.