John Updike on Obama

In a conversation with NYT Book Review editor Sam Tanenhaus, John Updike uses an intriguing neologism to describe Obama’s social skills. Updike thinks that the president-elect displays a certain “reaching-outness” (approx. 3:50 in the following video). – How would you spell it, with or without the hyphen? Or put another hyphen in front of “ness”?

The New York Times – Video Library – A Conversation With John Updike