Michelle Obama
Page 44
54 which Fraser and Marian had bought: Cook County property records.
55 “For someone like me”: Barack Obama, Audacity of Hope, pp. 332–333.
56 “cruddy”: Liza Mundy, Michelle: A Biography, p. 138.
57 His only pair: Michelle Obama, speech to Democratic National Convention, 2012.
58 “He loved that car”: Mundy, p. 138.
59 he considered working: Barack Obama, Dreams, p. 142.
60 The project descended: Peter Slevin, “For Clinton and Obama, a Common Ideological Touchstone,” Washington Post, March 25, 2007.
61 “a basic belief in”: Mike Kruglik, interview with author.
62 although his supervisor: Gregory Galluzzo, interview with author; and Slevin, “For Clinton and Obama.”
63 he worked with African American: Barack Obama, Dreams, p. 170.
64 “this dual sense”: Ibid., p. 157.
65 “He said that all too often”: Michelle Obama, speech to Democratic National Convention, August 26, 2008.
66 “It was how he felt about”: Michelle Obama, speech at Christ Church College, University of Oxford, May 25, 2011.
67 “We gave it a month, tops”: Rebecca Johnson, “The Natural,” Vogue, September 2007.
68 “you sort of felt sorry”: M. Charles Bakst, “Brown Coach Robinson a Strong Voice for Brother-in-Law Obama,” Providence Journal, May 20, 2007.
69 “She’s very accomplished”: Bill Reynolds, “Welcome to Obama’s Family,” Providence Journal, February 15, 2007.
70 “She found that he never”: Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, January 3, 2009.
71 “A little bit”: Elizabeth Brackett, Chicago Tonight, WTTW, October 28, 2004.
72 “When she asked me”: Chuck Klosterman, “First Coach,” Esquire, February 1, 2009.
73 “Confident without being cocky”: Johnson, “The Natural.”
74 “The fact that I’ve been”: Fox Butterfield, “First Black Elected to Head Harvard’s Law Review,” New York Times, February 6, 1990.
75 “If Suzanne or I”: Amanda Paulson, “Michelle Obama’s Story,” Christian Science Monitor, August 25, 2008.
76 “how I would want to be”: Michelle Obama, interview with author, 2007.
77 Doctors at the University: Craig Robinson, A Game of Character: A Family Journey from Chicago’s Southside to the Ivy League and Beyond, pp. 153–54.
78 “Would you just stop it”: Ibid., p. 155.
79 “As the casket was lowered”: Barack Obama, Audacity of Hope, p. 332.
80 “Can I go to the family reunion”: Debra Pickett, “My Parents Weren’t College-Educated Folks, So They Didn’t Have a Notion of What We Should Want,” Chicago Sun-Times, September 19, 2004.
81 “Just like that”: Michelle Obama, North Carolina A&T commencement, May 12, 2012.
7 | ASSETS AND DEFICITS
1 “I don’t want to be”: Susan Sher, interview with author.
2 Not wanting to let her: Valerie Jarrett, interview with author, 2007.
3 “He wanted to kick”: Ibid.
4 “Valerie, put yourself in”: Cal Fussman, “Valerie Jarrett: What I’ve Learned,” Esquire, May 2013.
5 “Everybody in my mother’s”: Timuel D. Black Jr., Bridges of Memory: Chicago’s First Wave of Black Migration, p. 579.
6 Barbara recalled that: Ibid., p. 581.
7 “My grandmother always”: Ibid., p. 593.
8 Showing up for work: Valerie Jarrett, remarks at National Medical Fellowships ceremony, Chicago, November 2008.
9 “My wife and I decided”: Death notice, University of Chicago, September 29, 2011.
10 “We said, ‘Let’s look’ ”: Black, p. 575.
11 “Because she didn’t know”: Ibid., p. 578.
12 “Because it was so hard”: Ibid., p. 592.
13 “In order to compete”: Ibid., pp. 581–582.
14 Well into adulthood: Joe Heim, “Just Asking: Valerie Jarrett on Giving Bad Advice, Shyness, and the Value of Loyalty,” Washington Post, December 7, 2014.
15 “I had a great office”: Fussman, “Valerie Jarrett.”
16 “there was no reason to be happy”: Abner Mikva, interview with author.
17 “She was a political novice”: Valerie Jarrett, interview with author, 2007.
18 “before they were married”: Ibid.
19 “It just seemed incredible”: Jay Newton-Small, “Michelle Obama’s Savvy Sacrifice,” Time, August 25, 2008.
20 “ultimately you’re not going”: Jim Axelrod, “First Coach,” CBS, March 1, 2009.
21 “Don’t you want to pay”: Newton-Small, “Michelle Obama’s Savvy Sacrifice.”
22 One was a Coach: Rebecca Johnson, “The Natural,” Vogue, 2007.
23 “City government, in addition”: Michelle Obama, interview with author, 2007.
24 “We all thought Barack”: Charles Payne, interview with author.
25 Barack informed Mikva: Abner Mikva, interview with author.
26 In ten years, Barack said: Bruce Orenstein, interview with author.
27 Barack lived with Michelle: Barack Obama, interviewed by Parade, June 22, 2014.
28 Barack telephoned Miner: Judson Miner, interview with author.
29 “that would let him”: David Remnick, The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama, p. 220.
30 Barack “knew full well”: Judson Miner, interview with author.
31 “The outer limits of minority”: Barnett v. Daley, 32 F.3d 1196 (1994).
32 Barack also did legal work: Judson Miner, memorandum to author, July 2007.
33 Miner said Barack’s efforts: Miner, interview with author.
34 “If this isn’t leading to marriage”: Debra Pickett, “My Parents Weren’t College-Educated Folks, So They Didn’t Have a Notion of What We Should Want,” Chicago Sun-Times, September 19, 2004.
35 “He would sometimes say”: “Barack Obama Revealed,” CNN, August 20, 2008.
36 Meanwhile, without telling her: Ibid.
37 “That kind of shuts you”: Carol Felsenthal, “The Making of a First Lady,” Chicago, January 16, 2009.
38 first record album: Barack Obama, remarks at the Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony, Washington, D.C., November 24, 2014.
39 Barack’s mother, Ann: Janny Scott, A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother, p. 303.
40 “Everybody was delighted”: Charles Payne, interview with author.
41 “We understood that together”: Felsenthal, “The Making of a First Lady.”
42 “I remember thinking to myself”: David Wilkins, interview with author.
43 She worked on business development: Carol Felsenthal, “Yvonne Davila, Close Friend of Michelle Obama, Could Be in Trouble,” Chicago, December 2012.
44 “whether city government”: Cindy Moelis, interview with author.
45 “She was not the type”: Sally Duros, interview with author.
46 “I remember a sense of frustration”: David Mosena, interview with author.
47 “It still wasn’t enough”: Geraldine Brooks, “Michelle Obama and the Roots of Reinvention: How the First Lady Learned to Dream Big,” More, October 2008.
48 “She wanted to be on her”: David Mosena, interview with author.
49 “It wasn’t part”: Sandy Newman, interview with author.
50 “He went around to each”: Madeline Talbott, interview with author.
51 the most efficient campaign: Gretchen Reynolds, “Vote of Confidence,” Chicago, January 1993.
52 “Who knows?”: Ibid.
53 “If you have the chance”: Veronica Anderson, “Forty Under 40: Here They Are, the Powers to Be,” Crain’s Chicago Business, September 27, 1993.
54 Vanessa Kirsch and Katrina Browne: Wingspread conference agenda, November 1991.
55 On the roster of participants: Wingspread conference participant list, November 1991.
56 But as several participants: Paul Schmitz, Everyone Leads: Building Leadership from t
he Community Up, p. 17.
57 One lawyer did legal: Eric Krol, “Service to Community Helps Pay the Way Toward College Education,” Chicago Tribune, April 29, 1994.
58 “Boy, she’s tall!”: Jacky Grimshaw, interview with author.
59 Each Ally received a copy: Leif Elsmo, interview with author.
60 The manual proposed ways: John P. Kretzmann and John L. McKnight, Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets, 1993.
61 “My mom and dad would always say”: Michelle Obama, speech to Democratic National Convention, 2008.
62 “The first thing that was mine”: Geraldine Brooks, “Michelle Obama and the Roots of Reinvention.”
63 “It sounded risky and just”: Richard Wolffe, “Barack’s Rock,” Newsweek, February 25, 2008.
64 She described her three-year stint as executive: Ibid.
65 In 1995, not two years after: Jeremy Mindich, “AmeriCorps: Young, Spirited and Controversial,” Chicago Tribune, April 9, 1995.
66 “I was never happier”: Michelle Obama, speech to the Corporation for National and Community Service, Washington, D.C., May 12, 2009.
67 “She didn’t care”: Jobi Petersen Cates, interview with author.
68 “There’s nothing funnier”: Michelle Obama, speech at a Greater D.C. Cares event, June 16, 2009.
69 “the most powerful thing”: Christi Parsons, Bruce Japsen, and Bob Secter, “Barack’s Rock,” Chicago Tribune, April 22, 2007.
70 “who wants to just look”: Jobi Petersen Cates, interview with author.
71 “She has a knack”: Krsna Golden, interview with author.
72 “where the magic happened”: Michelle Obama, speech at a Greater D.C. Cares event, June 16, 2009.
73 “You can’t be punching”: Leif Elsmo, interview with author.
74 “I hear that”: Julie Sullivan, interview with author.
75 “didn’t indulge that situation”: Jobi Petersen Cates, interview with author.
76 “We’d go from some”: Julie Sullivan, interview with author.
77 “That’s nice, but we’ve”: Paul Schmitz, interview with author.
78 “It was very focused on”: Kelly James, interview with author.
79 “The thrust of our”: Hank De Zutter, “What Makes Obama Run?,” Chicago Reader, December 8, 1995.
80 She viewed her role: Michelle Obama, speech at University of California–Merced commencement, May 16, 2009.
81 “just wasn’t big enough”: Sunny Fischer, interview with author.
8 | A LITTLE TENSION WITH THAT
1 “I grew up five minutes”: Holly Yeager, “The Heart and Mind of Michelle Obama,” O: The Oprah Magazine, November 2007.
2 “As fate would have it”: Michelle Obama, speech to University of California–Merced commencement, May 16, 2009.
3 “What I found”: Ibid.
4 The university endorsed restrictive covenants: Arnold R. Hirsch, Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago, 1940–1960, pp. 144–145.
5 “The gutters were full”: John W. Boyer, A Hell of a Job Getting It Squared Around: Three Presidents in Times of Change; Ernest D. Burton, Lawrence A. Kimpton, and Edward H. Levi, p. 112.
6 By one estimate: Ibid., p. 116.
7 “Social engineering on a vast”: Ibid., p. 131.
8 “Of those who did not return”: Ibid., p. 130.
9 By 1970, the university: James R. Grossman, Ann Durkin Keating, and Janice L. Reiff, eds., The Encyclopedia of Chicago, p. 848.
10 “regulate both the number”: Hirsch, p. 170.
11 “people like us”: John Boyer, interview with author.
12 “I appreciate what you are saying”: Timuel D. Black Jr., Bridges of Memory: Chicago’s First Wave of Black Migration, p. 583.
13 She also had a snapshot: Arthur Sussman, interview with author.
14 “Until you can bridge those”: Michelle Obama, interview with author, 2007.
15 Called Summer Links: Summer Links and Jennifer Nanasco, “Close-up on Juvenile Justice: Author Former Offender Among Speakers,” University of Chicago Chronicle 17, no. 4 (November 6, 1997).
16 “students and faculty explore”: Ibid.
17 Improvements in the surrounding communities: Arthur Sussman and John Boyer, interviews with author.
18 In his first year, 15 percent: John Boyer, interview with author.
19 “a broader and more diverse profile”: Ibid.
20 “convinced that the university”: Ibid.
21 “not just make us into some kind of NGO”: Ibid.
22 Many African American students: Melissa Harris-Perry, interview with author.
23 “You cannot do community-based”: Samuel Speers, interview with author.
24 “It was possible that other elite schools”: Arnold Sussman, interview with author.
25 “We had to fulfill”: Paul Schmitz, Everyone Leads: Building Leadership from the Community Up, p. 245.
26 A grand total of nine: Robert Draper, “Barack Obama’s Work in Progress,” GQ, November 2009.
27 Many years later: Jeff Zeleny, “As Author, Obama Earns Big Money and a New Deal,” New York Times, March 20, 2009.
28 “Michael Jordan can come”: Thomas Hardy, “Jackson Foe Now Wants Old Job Back,” Chicago Tribune, December 19, 1995.
29 “She brought elegance and class”: David Remnick, The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama, p. 283.
30 “Because I believe”: Michelle Obama, unpublished interview with Scott Helman, 2007.
31 “How can you impact”: Scott Helman, “Early Defeat Launched a Rapid Political Climb,” Boston Globe, October 12, 2007.
32 “We as a family”: Liza Mundy, “A Series of Fortunate Events,” Washington Post, August 12, 2007.
33 “Michelle had a black”: Abner Mikva, interview with author.
34 “I don’t trust the people”: Mariana Cook, interview with Barack and Michelle Obama, May 1996.
35 “When you are involved in politics”: Ibid.
36 It was one thing for him to surprise her: Draper, “Barack Obama’s Work in Progress.”
37 “There is a little tension with that”: Cook, interview with the Obamas, May 1996.
38 “He was not any”: Remnick, The Bridge.
39 “the very real conflicts”: Joe Frolik, “A Newcomer to the Business of Politics Has Seen Enough to Reach Some Conclusions About Restoring Voters’ Trust,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 3, 1996.
40 Back in Hawaii: Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 97.
41 “What you have been doing”: John McKnight, interview with author.
42 “We have no shortage”: Hank De Zutter, “What Makes Obama Run?,” Chicago Reader, December 8, 1995.
43 “What if a politician”: Ibid.
44 “I may not be”: Madeline Talbott, interview with author.
45 The freshman struck: Emil Jones, interview with author.
46 “He thought you could press”: Remnick, The Bridge, p. 299
47 “He wasn’t a maverick”: Cynthia Canary, interview with author.
48 “One night, we were playing”: Larry Walsh, interview with author.
49 “sharing the humor”: Barack Obama, Audacity of Hope, p. 339.
50 “this business is not”: Carol Felsenthal, “The Making of a First Lady,” Chicago, January 16, 2009.
51 “three magical months”: Barack Obama, Audacity of Hope, p. 339.
52 “It’s like, oh”: Geraldine Brooks, “Michelle Obama and the Roots of Reinvention: How the First Lady Learned to Dream Big,” More, October 2008.
53 “The strains in our relationship”: Barack Obama, Audacity of Hope, p. 339.
54 Money was becoming an increasing: Barack and Michelle Obama, IRS Form 1040, 200.
55 “We didn’t pick”: Michelle Obama, unpublished interview with Scott Helman, 2007.
56 They paid more: Ibid. See also Michelle Obama, speech to Democratic National Conventi
on, September 4, 2012.
57 Their down payment: Ray Gibson, John McCormick, and Christi Parsons, “How Broke Were the Obamas? Hard to Tell,” Chicago Tribune, April 20, 2008.
58 with a small assist: Maggie Murphy and Lynn Sherr, “The President and Mrs. Obama on Work, Family and Juggling It All,” Parade, June 20, 2014.
59 After he was elected: Malik Nevels, interview with author.
60 Barack considered himself: Barack Obama, Audacity of Hope, p. 3.
61 he quickly learned: Ibid., p. 105.
62 “went to Harvard and became”: Ted Kleine, “Is Bobby Rush in Trouble?,” Chicago Reader, March 17, 200.
63 “If you so impress white”: Ibid.
64 “Barack is viewed”: Ibid.
65 “if you’re well educated”: Ibid.
66 “You talk a certain type”: David Mendell, Obama: From Promise to Power, pp. 190–191.
67 “Tired and stressed”: Barack Obama, Audacity of Hope, p. 340.
68 “What a bunch”: “Philip, Criminals Win Again,” Chicago Tribune, December 31, 1999.
69 “a wailing baby in tow”: Barack Obama, Audacity of Hope, p. 106.
70 “realizing that I would”: Ibid.
71 The race, he said: Ibid., p. 354.
72 “it’s impossible not to”: Ibid., p. 107.
73 “a bit of useful”: Ibid., p. 355.
74 “I’m sorry, Mr. Obama”: Ibid.
75 “imagine the other person’s hopes”: Mariana Cook, interview with Barack and Michelle Obama, 1996.
76 “How we approach”: Ibid.
77 “I’ve seen that relationship”: Julie Sullivan, interview with author.
78 But as parents: Barack Obama, Audacity of Hope, p. 336.
79 “You only think about”: Ibid., p. 340.
80 “My wife’s anger”: Ibid.
81 He had vowed: Ibid., p. 346.
82 Indeed, his role model: Valerie Jarrett, interview with Frontline, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/government-elections-politics/choice-2012/the-frontline-interview-valerie-jarrett.
83 “As far as I was”: Ibid.
84 “After all, it wasn’t as if”: Ibid.
85 “We were terrified”: Michelle Obama, speech, Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Washington, D.C., September 18, 2009.
86 “not knowing whether”: Barack Obama, remarks, Bipartisan Health Care Summit, Washington, D.C., February 25, 2010.