Tag: malia obama
Obama Gave His Daughter A Kindle And Filled It With Books

Obama Gave His Daughter A Kindle And Filled It With Books

The first time I met Barack Obama was in early 2006, when he was still a U.S. senator.

He had come to Cincinnati to help out my husband, Sherrod Brown, in Sherrod’s campaign to join him in the Senate. I sat next to Obama during breakfast, before he took the stage. Almost immediately, our conversation turned to the isolation and rigor necessary for a writer’s life.

He was in the final edits for his second book, “The Audacity of Hope,” which would become a best-seller later that year and set the stage for his presidential race. What I remember most during our conversation was the look on his face, as well as the language he used, as he described his writing habits. A writer can usually tell when someone laying claim to the profession is faking it. Barack Obama was the real deal.

He talked about the quiet, anonymous space of air travel, when he could write without interruption. We commiserated about the challenge of finding that perfect word — and many times, there is that one perfect word — which too often eludes us writers until 3 in the morning, when we sit up like a sprung jackknife and claw in the dark for paper and a pen.

He asked about my writing habits and leaned in with the face of a person listening hard. I have little recollection of what I told him, beyond my sharing that I read everything out loud before hitting “send.” But I vividly recall sitting there listening to him and thinking, This is a man who loves the written word.

The New York Times’ chief book critic, Michiko Kakutani, recently interviewed Obama about how reading and writing fundamentally shaped him as a man and as a president.

An excerpt:

“During his eight years in the White House — in a noisy era of information overload, extreme partisanship and knee-jerk reactions — books were a sustaining source of ideas and inspiration, and gave him a renewed appreciation for the complexities and ambiguities of the human condition.

“‘At a time when events move so quickly and so much information is transmitted,’ he said, reading gave him the ability to occasionally ‘slow down and get perspective’ and ‘the ability to get in somebody else’s shoes.’ These two things, he added, ‘have been invaluable to me. Whether they’ve made me a better president I can’t say. But what I can say is that they have allowed me to sort of maintain my balance during the course of eight years, because this is a place that comes at you hard and fast and doesn’t let up.'”

Obama offered titles of books that have moved or influenced him in some way and told Kakutani that he recently gave his elder daughter, Malia, a Kindle filled with books he wanted to share with her. Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude” is one. “The Golden Notebook,” by Doris Lessing, is another. Maxine Hong Kingston’s “The Woman Warrior,” too.

I was fine, just fine, until I read about that Kindle.

For weeks now, I’ve been taking in the final round of coverage of this president and his family with a measured response. After every story, every video clip, I take a deep breath and move on.

This is part of what it means to live in America, I’ve reminded myself countless times since the election. Every presidency arrives with an expiration date. Eight years max and he — so far, always he — is out of there.

I have not always agreed with President Barack Obama, which is also part of what it means to live in America. We elect humans, not saints. There are bound to be disappointments.

Never, however, have I doubted Obama’s commitment to our country. Not once have I looked at him and worried about what the rest of the world must think of us for having elected him. I have trusted him to understand that his every move, his every word, reflects on all of us. If my working-class mother had lived to see President Obama, she would have said he knows how to represent.

Our president gave his teenage daughter a Kindle, and he filled it with books. That small yet enormous detail brings it home. There is no replacing this president, and what comes next is sinking in. The distance between what was and what will be seems so vast.

“Oh, well,” Brave Orchid says in “The Woman Warrior.” “We’re all under the same sky and walk the same earth; we’re alive together during the same moment.”

Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and professional in residence at Kent State University’s school of journalism. To find out more about Connie Schultz (con.schultz@yahoo.com) and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

IMAGE: U.S. President Barack Obama and his daughter Malia walk from Marine One to board Air Force One upon their departure from O’Hare Airport in Chicago April 7, 2016. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Yes We Can: Obama Defends American Values In Emotional Farewell

Yes We Can: Obama Defends American Values In Emotional Farewell

CHICAGO (Reuters) – With a final call of his campaign mantra “Yes We Can,” President Barack Obama urged Americans on Tuesday to stand up for U.S. values and reject discrimination as the United States transitions to the presidency of Republican Donald Trump.

In an emotional speech in which he thanked his family and declared his time as president the honor of his life, Obama gently prodded the public to embrace his vision of progress while repudiating some of the policies that Trump promoted during his campaign for the White House.

“So just as we, as citizens, must remain vigilant against external aggression, we must guard against a weakening of the values that make us who we are,” Obama told a crowd of 18,000 in his hometown of Chicago, where he celebrated his election in 2008 as the first black president of the United States.

Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, proposed temporarily banning Muslims from entering the country, building a wall on the border with Mexico, upending a global deal to fight climate change and dismantling Obama’s healthcare reform law.

Obama made clear his opposition to those positions during fiery campaign speeches for 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, but has struck a more conciliatory tone with Trump since the election.

In his farewell speech, he made clear his positions had not changed and he said his efforts to end the use of torture and close the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were part of a broader move to uphold U.S. values.

“That’s why I reject discrimination against Muslim Americans,” he said in a clear reference to Trump that drew applause.

He said bold action was needed to fight global warming and said “science and reason” mattered.

“If anyone can put together a plan that is demonstrably better than the improvements we’ve made to our healthcare system, that covers as many people at less cost, I will publicly support it,” he said in another prodding challenge to his successor.

Trump has urged the Republican-controlled Congress to repeal the law right away.

RACE AND NOSTALGIA

Obama, who came to office amid high expectations that his election would heal historic racial divides, acknowledged that was an impossible goal.

“After my election, there was talk of a post-racial America,” he said. “Such a vision, however well-intended, was never realistic. Race remains a potent and often divisive force in our society.”

However, Obama said he remained hopeful about the work that a younger generation would do. “Yes we can,” he said. “Yes we did.”

In an indirect reference to the political work the Democratic Party will have to do to recover after Clinton’s loss, Obama urged racial minorities to seek justice not only for themselves but also for “the middle-aged white man who from the outside may seem like he’s got advantages, but who’s seen his world upended by economic, cultural, and technological change.”

Trump won his election in part by appealing to working-class white men.

First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, his wife Jill Biden, and many current and former White House staff members and campaign workers attended the speech. Obama wiped his eyes as he addressed his wife and thanked his running mate. They all appeared together on stage after the address.

The Chicago visit is Obama’s last scheduled trip as president, and even the final flight on the presidential aircraft was tinged with wistfulness.

It was the president’s 445th “mission” on Air Force One, a perk he has said he will miss when he leaves office, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

All told, Obama will have spent more than 2,800 hours or 116 days on the plane during his presidency.

Obama plans to remain in Washington for the next two years while his younger daughter, Sasha, finishes high school. Sasha, who has an exam on Wednesday, did not attend the speech but her older sister Malia was there.

The president has indicated he wants to give Trump the same space that his predecessor, Republican President George W. Bush, gave Obama after leaving office by not maintaining a high public profile.

(Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton and Eric Beech; Editing by Peter Cooney, Richard Borsuk and Paul Tait)

IMAGE: President Barack Obama (R) is joined onstage by first lady Michelle Obama and daughter Malia, after his farewell address in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. January 10, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Congressional Aide Who Criticized Obama Girls Is Quitting, NBC Says

Congressional Aide Who Criticized Obama Girls Is Quitting, NBC Says

By Katherine Skiba, Tribune Washington Bureau (TNS)

WASHINGTON — A Republican congressional staffer who took Malia and Sasha Obama to task for how they behaved at last week’s White House turkey pardoning is quitting her job, according to NBC News.

The staffer, Elizabeth Lauten, has been communications director for Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-TN).

A firestorm arose when Lauten’s comments about the first daughters, which she posted on Facebook, went viral. “Try showing a little class,” she wrote in a post addressed to the girls.

“Rise to the occasion. Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at the bar,” she continued. “And certainly don’t make faces during televised, public events.”

Lauten later apologized.

Malia Obama is 16 years old and Sasha Obama is 13. The girls appeared uninterested as their father was speaking during the traditional pre-Thanksgiving event.

Lauten did not respond to an email Monday from a Tribune reporter seeking comment.

In Fincher’s Washington office, a woman who answered the phone Monday declined to comment on the reported resignation. “This is a personnel issue and we are not discussing it,” said the woman, who declined to give her full name, then hung up.

Attempts to follow up with Fincher’s office were not immediately successful. Callers heard a pre-recorded message of the lawmaker saying: “We have a high number of calls right now and cannot answer the phone.”

Messages could not be left because of a full mail box, callers were told.

AFP Photo/Mandel Ngan

U.S. Lawmaker’s Aide Draws Ire Over First Daughter Scolding

U.S. Lawmaker’s Aide Draws Ire Over First Daughter Scolding

Washington (AFP) – A U.S. lawmaker’s communications director was facing social media calls she be sacked after her Facebook rant about President Barack Obama’s daughters prompted widespread anger.

Elizabeth Lauten, spokeswoman for Republican Congressman Stephen Fincher of Tennessee, wrote a scathing post to her Facebook account scolding Malia and Sasha Obama, 16 and 13, for looking bored while attending a public event with their father on Wednesday.

In the post, since deleted but widely reproduced in screen grabs, Lauten tells the girls to “try showing a little class. At least respect the part you play.”

The girls stood beside Obama — looking vaguely bored — as he issued the annual Thanksgiving turkey “pardon,” saving two birds from the dinner table.

The underwhelmed expressions of the teenaged sisters sparked mainly amused comment, but Lauten’s remarks were notably more caustic.

“Then again, your mother and father don’t respect their positions very much, or the nation for that matter,” Lauten wrote in her post.

“So I’m guessing you’re coming up a little short in the ‘good role model’ department.

“Nevertheless, stretch yourself. Rise to the occasion. Act like being in the White House matters to you.

“Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at a bar,” she added, apparently referring to the girls’ short skirts.

The post quickly drew ire on Twitter and elsewhere, with many calling for Lauten to be fired, even after Lauten deleted it and posted an apology.

“After many hours of prayer, talking to my parents, and re-reading my words online I can see more clearly just how hurtful my words were,” Lauten wrote on Facebook, also widely reproduced before she made her page private.

“I’d like to apologize to all of those who I have hurt and offended with my words, and I pledge to learn and grow (and I assure you I have) from this experience,” she added.

Star Jones, a lawyer and television personality, was among those unimpressed. “I’ve seen tacky people…but rarely seen someone as tacky as # ElizabethLauten for slamming the children of the # POTUS,” she tweeted.

Many directed their tweets to Lauten’s boss, as the hashtag #FireElizabethLauten went viral.

One commenter, whose username is Eclectic John, wrote: ” @ RepFincherTN08 There is nothing that excuses what # ElizabethLauten posted re the children of our President. That’s off limits. Fire her now.”

AFP Photo/Mandel Ngan