This Article In 1990 Eerily Predicted Barack Obama’s Presidency

Today in mildly interesting news: a 1990 article published in The Boston Globe — on the occasion of his inauguration as president of the Harvard Law Review — predicted Barack Obama’s eventual rise to presidency.

[Obama] is so exceptionally self-assured and directed… that one friend recalls being completely overwhelmed when they met four years ago.

I thought, “This guy sounds like he’s president of the country already,” said John Owens, a former co-worker from Chicago, during a telephone interview. “I’ve never met anyone who could leave that impression after only five minutes.”

There you have it — at least one person saw it coming. Obama maintains a presidential tone throughout the piece, deflecting all the praise away from himself and using the word “folks” a lot. After graduating, Obama told the Globe, he intended to “resume community work and possibly to enter politics.”