Ladies and gentlemen, we invite you to meet the press.

Welcome to another edition of 1947, the Meet the Press podcast this week.

I'm talking with Joy Reid, my great colleague at MSNBC and EJD on from the Washington

Post, where co-authors of a new book, or actually their co-editors of a new book might be

the way to call it, we are the change we seek.

A collection of the speeches of Barack Obama and both authors join me now, EJ, Joy, howdy.

Going to be with you?

Great to hear.

Joy, let me start with you.

What's the theory of the case of what you were trying to put together with these speeches?

Well, you know, with Barack Obama because he is such an oratorical, I guess you could

say, savant in a lot of ways.

From the time he appeared on the national stage, it was the way he spoke and the things that

he said and the way he put his sort of thoughts together that made him a political superstar.

So we had this monumental task of boiling it down to what are the things that he said, the

speeches that he gave that had the most impact in different arenas, whether it was impact

on our politics, on our discussions of race, on our sense of the international community,

of who we were in the world.

And so I think the theory of the case is that Barack Obama is somebody who led with words,

but who as president sometimes had a challenge leading with words, if that makes any sense.

It does, you know, EJ, I used to think that Barack Obama would have been a great 19th century

president.

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