The radical French philosopher Alain Badiou was asked, after the 2009 US election, what he thought of the then President-elect Barack Obama, to which he responded, only partly amusingly: “Obama? As actor or as politician?”

It wasn’t meant negatively, he went on to explain, but rather that Obama had convincingly pulled off a return to the classical style of presidency, rather than the “modern modes of self-presentation”. Ironically, here, Obama had to act in order to avoid the trappings of the over-stylised American president. Continue reading →