HBO's new documentary goes places the Obama media machine might not have
So when HBO announced its three-part series “Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union,” it was hard to imagine what new material or insights, if any, it had to offer.
And although the Obamas aren’t interviewed for the series — the only family member to appear is the former president’s Kenyan aunt — it’s unlikely the documentary would have gone to the places it does if the 44 machine had been steering the narrative. For instance, Sharpton recalls a conversation he had with then-Illinois state Sen. Obama in 2004 at the Caucus of Black Delegates, the day before Obama was to give his breakthrough keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention.
Using Obama’s legacy as a prism to look at the myriad ways his presidency forced the country to grapple with its painful history, the series thus offers a fresh look at how Obama did and didn’t fit into the country’s prevailing political narratives.The second part, which covers his presidential run, reveals that Obama felt constant pressure “to define his identity along racial lines,” which left him “frustrated by what he saw as a distraction from other important issues.
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