Invitation to a Steak-Fry

To the Editors:

In my review of Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope [NYR, November 30, 2006], I referred to a source who told me that Senator Obama had asked Senator Tom Harkin to speak at the latter’s annual steak-fry in September. In a conference call between Senator Harkin and political reporters, a tape of which I have listened to, Harkin said that Obama “wanted to speak there” and that Harkin “was glad to work out an arrangement with him.” The offices of both senators say that the tape is not conclusive evidence and that Harkin in fact initiated the invitation. I’m glad to publish their correction.

Apart from this, I wrote that Obama met his wife at a law firm after he graduated from Harvard Law and moved to Chicago. In fact, they met after his first year of law school, when he was a summer associate at the firm.

Michael Tomasky

Washington, D.C.