Dan Pfeiffer’s Exit Interview: How the White House Learned to Be Liberal

Dan Pfeiffer, who left his position as senior adviser at the White House last week after having worked with Barack Obama since his first presidential campaign, has been involved from the outset in navigating the central contradiction at the heart of Obama’s public persona: He ran as a figure who could overcome partisan polarization, yet he has instead presided over more of it despite accomplishing the majority of the substantive agenda he promised.

Obama and his spokespeople have spent most of their administration quietly at war with the conventional wisdom...