President Barack Obama last April visited the University of Chicago, where he once taught law, to speak with students and faculty about his nominee for the Supreme Court.

Law professor Douglas Baird, who hired Obama as a lecturer, was in the audience. Baird said parts of the president’s speech reminded him of Obama’s days at the university.

“Something that separates Obama from virtually all other politicians is that his formative years were spent not as a politician but as a professor who was talking about controversial issues, and I think if you listen to that speech, listen to those interactions, you didn’t have a sense you were dealing with someone who lived in soundbites,” Baird said. 

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