Obama as Poker Player Cover Story in the National Journal

The first thing that caught my eye when I saw the cover of the new issue of National Journal was the hand: Obama already has Jacks-or-better, but could also be drawing to an inside straight. Great artistic display of poker metaphor … and I can't believe, after more than six years since Moneymaker, someone has finally posed a hand as something other than a royal flush. That in and of itself tells me the story's gonna be good … as the editor clearly understands a little something about politics and poker.

Once and future NJ subscribers can click here:

COVER STORY: High Stakes
AN ANALYSIS OF OBAMA'S POTENTIAL APPROACH TO FOUR MAJOR ISSUES.
by Will Englund / Saturday, Dec. 5, 2009

Or click below to read (the full text from) an email that has been floated through the poker-political ether:

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December 5, 2009

National Journal
Cover Story: When Is Obama Bluffing?
The President Approaches Issues with a Poker Player's Sensibility, Learned By Playing the Quintessentially American Game.

by Will Englund

High Stakes
An analysis of Obama's potential approach to four major issues.

The Players:

Obama, Republicans, "Blue Dog" Democrats, liberal Democrats, insurance companies, hospitals, doctors

The Stakes:
Health care availability, the federal budget, political power
His opponents think they can drive Obama out of the tournament in this game.

Life is not a crapshoot. Politics is not chess. Character is not a round of golf.

If there is a single game that comes closest to recapitulating modern existence — that both mimics and informs the logic of a cluttered, challenging, bewilderingly complicated, less-than-all-knowing, partially comprehensible human society — it is poker, where quantitative analysis and calculated deception come together, and where skill wins out over luck in the long run, except that most people don't have the luxury of waiting until then.

President Obama calls himself a pretty good poker player, with skills honed back when he took part in a regular game in Springfield, Ill. The other players in that game — lobbyists and fellow members of the state Senate — describe him as a cautious participant: patient, conservative, patient, level-headed, patient, affable — and did we mention patient?

That game started more than a decade ago. Today, Obama confronts more-formidable foes, and for much bigger stakes. But in his first 10-plus months in office, he has approached the major issues facing his administration and the country with a poker player's sensibility. That doesn't mean that he necessarily has been dealt good hands. It doesn't even mean that he has always played his hands well. He hasn't. What he has done, though, is to make an effort to read his opponents, hold his own cards close, keep a straight face, and wait, calmly, for the winning play.

http://pokerati.com/2009/12/05/obama-as-a-poker-player-cover-story-in-the-national-journal/