Rick Perry, the former Texas governor, was introducing the candidate I’d come to see, but with descriptions that bore no relation to the candidate I’d come to know.
He called this man “one of the great listeners that I’ve ever been around in my entire life.” He praised him as “a person who is full of humility.”
Then it hit me: Perry was playing defense and asserting the precise virtues that the candidate famously lacks.
.. Many of us have worried that the increasingly circuslike, invasive, round-the-clock nature of modern campaigns would frighten off anyone with an inkling of modesty, an iota of self-doubt. Who would endure this ordeal and make this bargain?
The answer, all too often, is someone who finds the spotlight so mesmerizing that the ugliness on its periphery doesn’t matter, or someone whose hunger for validation is so prodigious that only Air Force One will sate it.
.. As a cocky teenager, he said that his life goals were to “take over the world, world domination, you know, rule everything.” He separately wrote of plans to “achieve a strong enough reputation and track record to run for — and win — president of the United States.”
Malia Obama’s College Pick: Ivies, Liberal Arts or Public University?
Mr. Obama and his large entourage have not tagged along. On some trips, even Michelle Obama has stayed behind, letting family friends show her daughter around. Students have still angled for selfies and Snapchats when they recognize Malia, but a low-key search process is most likely what the White House is aiming for, said Lisa Caputo, the press secretary to Hillary Rodham Clinton when the first daughter, Chelsea (Stanford ’01), was looking for colleges in the 1990s.
“You want to have as informed a visit as possible, just like anyone else who is a college applicant,” Ms. Caputo said. “You want to let them get a feel — what’s the vibe on campus — without being followed by a whole swarm of people.”