I checked out your CK profile, hope that's okay.
Education and research are near and dear to my heart too. So I found this sentence jarring from such a presumed-to-be reliable source:
"Obama is so comfortable in his skin, unrehearsed."

That sounds stunningly gullible -- you are following Obama and studying his campaign, is that right? As an education editor and researcher, as a journalist and not a giddy groupie?

So choosing the word "unrehearsed" as if he were some natural at all this rather than a calculated and impressive performer of political theatre, well it must be merely your sincere gut impression as yet unexamined and verified, a sin of omission, not commission?
Maybe you just haven't had time yet to read any other journalist's account that contradicts this misleading description?

How Obama learned to be a natural"
As a correspondent for the Chicago Reader, I covered Obama's 2000 campaign. . .You think John Kerry looked wooden and condescending on the campaign trail? You should have seen this kid Obama. . .Obama just couldn't -- or wouldn't -- loosen up.

[Fast forward]

In the words of an old police reporter, Obama makes grease look gritty. Just as he was looking two moves ahead, politically, I'm sure he was two moves ahead of my expectations. It was working. . .
So what do you make of a campaigner whose persona changed so drastically in four years? That he's finally learned to be himself, or that he's putting on an act? He's doing both. All great politicians are also great performers.