Four Legs of the Obama Legacy, From 'The Ultimate Exit Interview'

If you doubt the president's self-regard, you should follow him on Twitter or read the new issue of Vanity Fair online. Obama'sinterview with his favorite historian and presidential-legacy stylist Doris Kearns Goodwin didn't reveal much beyond his ample vanity. It was hardly the scholar-pundit and knownplagiarist's first time talking to the president about himself–he called her when he was a freshman senator, already contemplating his place in history and, above all, his likeness to Lincoln.

In "Barack Obama and Doris Kearns Goodwin: The Ultimate Exit Interview" four consistent strains stand out. They're themes of the presidency Goodwin directs attention to with a would-be-biographer's familiarity, and clear indicators of what history will remember as the Obama years crystallize into the past.

1. His sneering sarcasm—which even Goodwin can't pretend he conceals.

OBAMA: And then I'll crumple it up. Every once in a while, my team here will hear me go on a rant. Generally speaking, people who know me will tell you that my public persona is not that different from my private persona. I am who I am. You sort of get what you see with me. The two exceptions are that I curse more than I should, and I find myself cursing more in this office than I had in my previous life. [Laughter.] And fortunately both my chief of staff and my national-security adviser have even bigger potty mouths than me, so it's O.K. And the second thing is that I can be much more sarcastic and, I think, sometimes withering in my assessments of things than I allow to show in my public life.

GOODWIN: Well, we see it sometimes. [Laughter.]

OBAMA: Yes, every once in a while you see it.