Don't Call it a Comeback

The Times reports on Larry "The Harvard Lighning Rod" Summers' "Path to Renewal." Will he be the Oscar Madison in a White House of Felix Ungers?

The two men, who have forged their relationship in the tumult of the financial crisis, share a lot: Harvard, a love of debate, and firm convictions, like agreement on the need to narrow the gap between America’s most fortunate and everyone else. But they are also an odd couple: the serene, slender politician who seems to win people over effortlessly and the impatient, acerbic bear of a man who seems to offend them just as easily.

“Barack thinks with his mind open,” said Charles Ogletree, a law professor at Harvard. “Larry thinks with his mouth open.”