Jon Favreau, Obama Speechwriter, Pens Memo: The President Is Not All Powerful

Former Obama Aide: The President Is Not All Powerful
US President Barack Obama disembarks from Air Force One at the Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City, on May 2, 2013. Obama landed in Mexico on Thursday at the start of a three-day trip that will also take him to Costa Rica, with trade, US immigration reform and the drug war high on the agenda. The runways of Mexico City's international airport closed for half an hour to let Air Force One land, and Obama was scheduled to head to the historic National Palace downtown for talks with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. AFP PHOTO/RONALDO SCHEMIDT (Photo credit should read Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images)
US President Barack Obama disembarks from Air Force One at the Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City, on May 2, 2013. Obama landed in Mexico on Thursday at the start of a three-day trip that will also take him to Costa Rica, with trade, US immigration reform and the drug war high on the agenda. The runways of Mexico City's international airport closed for half an hour to let Air Force One land, and Obama was scheduled to head to the historic National Palace downtown for talks with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. AFP PHOTO/RONALDO SCHEMIDT (Photo credit should read Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images)

He added the words in one of the later drafts. The announcement speech had been missing something, a direct response to the creeping cynicism of the previous decade. Why would this time be any different? What was so special about this political novice, that he thought he could solve all of these intractable problems on his own?

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