"Obama was the most prominent minority student on a campus shaken by racial politics…. If he failed to use his office to criticize Harvard, Mr. Obama would anger black and liberal students; by speaking out, he would risk dragging himself and the review into the center of shrill debates. People had a way of hearing what they wanted in Mr. Obama’s words…. According to Mr. Ogletree, students on each side of the debate thought he was endorsing their side. “Everyone was nodding, Oh, he agrees with me,” he said…. Obama stayed away from the extremes… choosing safe topics for his speeches…. His speeches… were more memorable for style than substance…. Another of Mr. Obama’s techniques relied on his seemingly limitless appetite for hearing the opinions of others…. That could lead to endless debates… as well as some uncertainty about what Mr. Obama himself thought about… his friends said they could not remember his specific views from that era, beyond a general emphasis on diversity and social and economic justice…. “The things that make law school politics fractious are different from the things that make American politics fractious,” said Ron Klain, who preceded Mr. Obama at the law review and later served as Vice President Al Gore’s chief of staff…. [Obama’s] “is that is a style of leadership more effective running a law review than running a country"