Bob Woodward: ‘Who is Barack Obama?’ (Washington keeps wondering about the Manchurian Candidate)

Yet they voted for him

Woodward also spoke about his impressions of Obama, calling the president a figure surrounded by “mystery.”

When asked what he’d most like to know about Obama, Woodward said he knows the president keeps a diary and that he’d like to read it.

“What’s driving him? Who is Barack Obama?” he said. “A description of that inner life will be something if it’s candid.”

(Also on POLITICO: Woodward: Obama didn't fix economy)

Woodward said that, especially compared to former President George W. Bush, Obama keeps his thoughts and intentions more to himself.

“There wasn’t a lot of mystery about how Bush felt: He was a gut player and, as he said, it was his job to put some calcium in the spine,” he said. “But I think Obama is a little bit more of an uncertain figure, and quite frankly, I think when he writes his own autobiography about his time as president, and there is more excavation of all this, we’re going to discover that he’s working it out as he plays the game.”

A psychological study of Obama voters, at least those who did not vote for him because of race, would be fascinating.