I like Barack. I’ve liked him all year and have been crossing my fingers for him. Naturally, I’m beyond delighted. But I’ve been sort of going: who is this guy? Beyond the obvious, oh, he’s a Democrat and liberal and an African-American and an Harvard law professor and a dude who smoked dope in Hawaii (because…you live in Hawaii, for God’s sake…why wouldn’t you)….

No. I mean: who he is. And I think I have it. I mean, W. was a rock–not in sense of strength and stability but like the guy who stakes his position and just holds it no matter what, convinced he’ll ride it out and be vindicated, which is why he has no plan when shit blows up around him. Clinton was a surfer; he’d catch one wave after another–the whole idea was stay on the board. The elder Bush was a little like his son, except smarter and more flexible–he was more tree than rock but still of the ride-it-out old money school (and with that Bush mean streak…never forget he was CIA director once). Reagan was all stagecraft–they built the set around wherever he went. And so on…I’m not going to work all the way to George Washington.

Obama? He’s the chess player six moves ahead of you.