Barack and Michelle

by Christopher Andersen

  I was fortunate enough to have two remarkable parents—Edward and Jeanette Andersen. I’ve also had the pleasure of telling my wife, Valerie, in no fewer than twenty-eight books how much she means to me. As Barack said about Michelle, Valerie is my rock—the one who keeps it real. Our daughters, Kate and Kelly—one newly married, the other starting college—have routinely amazed us and, as Michelle said of her two daughters, provided us over the years with no small degree of “pure comic relief.”

  Additional thanks to Newton Minow, Abner Mikva, Laurence Tribe, Senator John Kerry, Jerry Kellman, Clive Gray, Bradford Berenson, Keith Kakugawa, Senator Tom Harkin, Jeremiah Posedel, Mike Kruglik, Toni Preckwinkle, Judson Miner, Denny Jacobs, Mike Jacobs, Maxine Box, Linda Randle, Yvonne Lloyd, Loretta Augustin-Herron, Edward Koch, Leslie Hairston, the Reverend Alvin Love, Wellington Wilson, Chris McLachlin, Judith Hope, Vinai Thummalapally, Lowell Jacobs, Joyce Feuer, Coralee Jacobs, Eric Kusunoki, Alan Lum, Pake Zane, Julie Lauster, Hazel M. Johnson, Cheryl Johnson, Letitia Baldrige, Larry Walsh, Tom Freeman, Yvette Reyes, Kelly Rolf, Danny Taylor, Zarif, Dr. Joyce Kenner, Nilda Rivera, Dave Heffert, Amy Barton, Elizabeth Yura, Betsy Vandercook, Janet Allison, Sharon Lorenz, Debra Gage, Everett Raymond Kinstler, Pam Cummings, Dudley Freeman, Paula Dranov, Carlyn Tani, Jeanette Peterson, Liz Miller, the late Irv Kupcinet, Barry Schenck, Bill Diehl, Mary Ann Campbell, Lawrence R. Mulligan, Sophie Gravelat, Larry Klayman, Rosalind Halvorsen, Tobias Markowitz, David McGough, Elizabeth Loth, Jean Chapin, Hazel Southam, Richard Smart, Lee Wohlfert, Norman Currie, Rosemary McClure, Ray Whelan Jr., Gary Gunderson, David Plotkin, Cranston Jones, Kenneth P. Norwick, Mary Beth Whelan, Larry Schwartz, Tiffney Sanford, Debbie Goodsite, Arturo Santos, the Punahou Academy, the Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, Harvard University School of Law, Princeton University, the Harvard Law Review, Occidental College, the New York Public Library, the University of Chicago School of Law, the White House Historical Association, the Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley, the Gunn Memorial Library, the Silas Bronson Library, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Honolulu Advertiser, Globe Photos, Sipa Press, Polaris Images, Corbis, Getty Images, BEImages, the Litchfield Business Center, Bloomberg News, the Associated Press, and Reuters.

  SOURCES AND CHAPTER NOTES

  The following chapter notes have been compiled to give an overview of the sources drawn upon in preparing Barack and Michelle, but they are by no means all-inclusive. Certain key sources in Washington, Chicago, Hawaii, Indonesia, and Kenya—some professional colleagues, close friends, and relatives—asked to remain anonymous and the author has respected their wishes. Accordingly, they are not listed here or elsewhere in the text. Although relatively little was written about Barack Obama prior to his U.S. Senate race in 2004, and even less about Michelle, a virtual tsunami of news reports and articles was generated by the seemingly endless presidential election campaign of 2008. In addition to the nonstop television and Internet coverage, there were thousands of articles published in a wide range of publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Newsweek, Time, the Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, U.S. News & World Report, the Chicago Tribune, Ebony, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, the Seattle Times, the Honolulu Advertiser, the Times (London), Paris Match, and Le Monde, and carried on the wires of Reuters, Gannett, Bloomberg, and the Associated Press.

  Chapters 1 and 2

  Interview subjects included Newton Minow, Abner Mikva, Toni Preckwinkle, Leslie Hairston, Pake Zane, Julie Lauster, Clive Gray, Maxine Box, Keith Kakugawa, Vinai Thummalapally, Chris McLachlin, Eric Kusunoki, Alan Lum, Janet Allison, Lowell Jacobs, Carlyn Tani, Joyce Feuer. Articles and other published sources for this period included Nicole Brodeur, “Memories of Obama’s Mother,” Seattle Times, February 5, 2008; Amanda Ripley, “A Mother’s Story,” Time, April 21, 2008; Janny Scott, “A Free-Spirited Wanderer Who Set Obama’s Path,” New York Times, March 14, 2008; Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope (New York: Vintage Books, 2006); Jonathan Martin, “Obama’s Mother Known Here as ‘Uncommon,’” Seattle Times, April 8, 2008; Dan Nakaso, “Family Precedent: Obama’s Grandmother Blazed Trails,” April 8, 2008; Christiane Oelrich, “Obama the ‘Curly-Haired One,’” News 24, April 29, 2008; Johnny Brannon, “Hawaii’s Imperfect Melting Pot a Big Influence on Young Obama,” Honolulu Advertiser, February 10, 2007; Carlyn Tani, “A Kid Called Barry,” Punahou Bulletin, Punahou School, Spring 2007; Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father (New York: Times Books, 1995); Ronald Kessler, “Obama’s High School Days: Ran with Bad Crowd,” Newsmax, October 9, 2008; “The Choice 2008: Barack Obama,” Frontline, PBS, October 14, 2008; “Old Friends Recall Obama’s College Years,” Associated Press, May 16, 2008.

  Chapters 3 and 4

  Information in these chapters was based in part on interviews and conversations with Laurence Tribe, Jerry Kellman, Abner Mikva, Bradford Berenson, Mike Kruglik, Yvonne Lloyd, Linda Randle, Loretta Augustin-Herron, Hazel Johnson, Vinai Thummalapally, the Reverend Alvin Love, Cheryl Johnson, Newton Minow, and Judson Miner. Published sources included Richard Wolffe, “When Barry Became Barack,” Newsweek, March 31, 2008; David Mendell, Obama: From Promise to Power (New York: HarperCollins, 2007); “The Poetry of Barack Obama,” New York Times, May 18, 2008; Liz Mundy, Michelle (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008); Sally Jacobs, “Learning to Be Michelle Obama,” Boston Globe, June 15, 2008; Shailagh Murray, “A Family Tree Rooted in American Soil,” Washington Post, October 2, 2008; “At Harvard, Obama Foreshadowed Presidential Appeal,” Associated Press, January 26, 2007; Bob Secter and John McCormick, “Obama in Chicago: Portrait of a Pragmatist,” Chicago Tribune, April 3, 2007; Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals (New York: Random House, 1971); William Finnegan, “The Candidate,” New Yorker, May 31, 2004; Rick Pearson and David Mendell, “Illinois Democrats Praise Obama’s Convention Speech,” Chicago Tribune, July 29, 2004; Joy Bennett Kin-non, “Michelle Obama: Not Just the Senator’s Wife,” Ebony, March 2006; Gwen Ifill, “Beside Barack,” Essence, September 2007; Mike Dorning, “Employer: Michelle Obama’s Raise Well-Earned,” Chicago Tribune, September 27, 2006; Rosalind Rossi, “The Woman Behind Obama,” Chicago Sun-Times, January 20, 2007.

  Chapters 5 to 8

  For these chapters, the author drew on conversations with, among others, Senator John Kerry, Senator Tom Harkin, Newton Minow, Jeremiah Posedel, Abner Mikva, Senator Denny Jacobs, Toni Preckwinkle, Judson Miner, Leslie Hairston, Senator Mike Jacobs, Larry Walsh, Zarif, Joyce Feuer, Janet Allison, Letitia Baldrige, Wellington Wilson, Coralee Jacobs, Edward Koch, Rick Lazio, the Reverend Alvin Love, Betsy Vandercook, Mary Ann Campbell, and Lowell Jacobs. Published sources include: Lynn Norment, “The Hottest Couple in America,” Ebony, February 2007; Christi Parsons, Bruce Japsen, and Bob Secter, “Barack’s Rock,” Chicago Tribune, April 22, 2007; Janny Scott, “In Illinois, Obama Proved Pragmatic and Shrewd,” New York Times, July 30, 2007; Holly Yeager, “The Heart and Mind of Michelle Obama,” O, November 2007; Richard Wolffe, “Barack’s Rock,” Newsweek, February 25, 2008; Jay Tolson, “The Obama Effect,” U.S. News & World Report, February 25, 2008; Lauren Collins, “The Other Obama,” New Yorker, March 10, 2008; Tim Dickinson, “The Machinery of Hope,” Rolling Stone, March 20, 2008; Richard Wolffe and Evan Thomas, “Sit Back, Relax, Get Ready to Rumble,” Newsweek, May 18, 2008; “Obama Quits Church, Citing Controversies,” CNN, May 31, 2008; Maureen Dowd, “What’s Better? His Empty Suit or Her Baggage?” New York Times, March 15, 2006; Nancy Gibbs and Jay Newton-Small, “The War Over Michelle,” Time, May 22, 2008; Kathryn Knight, “Is She the U.S. Cherie?” Daily Mail, June 26, 2008; Stefano Esposito, “Two People Who Love Each Other,” Chicago Sun-Times, July 13, 2008; Ryan Lizza, “Making It,” New Yorker, July 21, 2008; Dave McKinney and Chris Fusco, “Obama on Rezko Deal: It Was a Mistake,” Chicago Sun-Times, November 5, 2006; Sandra Sobieraj Westfall, “The Obamas Get Personal,” People, August 4, 2008; Vanessa Grigoriadis, “Black and Blacker: The Raci
al Politics of the Obama Marriage,” New York, August 18, 2008; Harriette Cole, “The Real Michelle Obama,” Ebony, September 2008; Liz Mundy, “Series of Fortunate Events,” Washington Post, August 12, 2007; Diane Salvatore, “The Obamas,” Ladies’ Home Journal, September 2008; Jon Meacham, “On His Own,” Newsweek, September 1, 2008; Lynn Sweet, “Role Ayers Played in Obama Political Career,” Chicago Sun-Times, October 15, 2008; Drew Griffin and Kathleen Johnston/CNN Special Investigations Unit, “Obama-Ayers Connection Much Deeper, Ran Much Longer, Was More Political,” Anderson Cooper 360°, October 6, 2008; Dan Nakaso and Geraldine Brooks, “Camelot 2.0?” More, October 2008; James Bone, “Obama Was Unaware ‘Aunt Zeituni’ Defied Judge’s Order to Leave U.S., New York Times, November 3, 2008; “The Final Days,” Newsweek, November 17, 2008; Jill Smolowe and Sandra Sobieraj Westfall, “The Obamas’ New Life,” People, November 24, 2008; Rob Chilton, Delina Dixon, and William Reiter, “Inside Michelle’s Private World,” OK Weekly, November 24, 2008; David Von Drehle, “Why History Can’t Wait,” Time, December 29, 2008; John Feinstein, “Obama’s Brother-in-Law Is a Court Authority,” Washington Post, January 18, 2009; Joe Klein, “A New Destiny,” Time, January 20, 2009; “At Last,” Associated Press, January 21, 2009; Christia Bellantoni, Stephen Dinan, and John Ward, “Obama’s Historic Day, Minute by Minute,” Washington Times, January 21, 2009; Tom Junod, “What the Hell Just Happened?” Esquire, February 2009; Jonathan Alter, “The Confidence Game,” Newsweek, March 2, 2009; Carol Felsenthal, “The Making of a First Lady,” Chicago, February 2009; André Leon Talley, “Leading Lady,” Vogue, March 2009; Maureen Orth, “Enter Obama,” Vanity Fair, March 2009.

  SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Abramson, Jill, et al. Obama: The Historic Journey. New York: New York Times / Callaway, 2009.

  Alinsky, Saul. Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals. New York: Random House, 1971.

  Andersen, Christopher. American Evita: Hillary Clinton’s Path to Power. New York: William Morrow, 2004.

  —. Bill and Hillary: The Marriage. New York: William Morrow, 1999.

  —. George and Laura: Portrait of an American Marriage. New York: William Morrow, 2002.

  —.Jack and Jackie: Portrait of an American Marriage. New York: William Morrow, 1996.

  —. Jackie After Jack: Portrait of the Lady. New York: William Morrow, 1998.

  Ayers, Bill. Fugitive Days: A Memoir. Boston: Beacon, 2001.

  Cone, James H. Black Theology and Black Power. New York: Harper & Row, 1969.

  —. For My People: Black Theology and the Black Church. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1984.

  Dougherty, Steve. Hopes and Dreams: The Story of Barack Obama. New York: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, 2008.

  Editors of Life Magazine. Life: The American Journey of Barack Obama. New York: Little, Brown, 2008.

  Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks. New York: Grove, 1967.

  Lightfoot, Elizabeth. Michelle Obama: First Lady of Hope. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2009.

  Malcolm X, with Alex Haley. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Grove, 1965.

  McCain, John, with Mark Salter. Faith of My Fathers. New York: Random House, 1999.

  —. Worth the Fighting For. New York: Random House, 2003.

  Mendell, David. Obama: From Promise to Power. New York: Amistad / HarperCollins, 2007.

  Mundy, Liz. Michelle: A Biography. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008.

  Obama, Barack. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. New York: Vintage Books, 2008.

  —. Dreams from My Father. New York: Times Books, 1995.

  Steele, Shelby. A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can’t Win. New York: Free Press, 2008.

  Wright, Jeremiah A. What Makes You So Strong? Sermons of Joy and Strength. Valley Forge, PA: Judson, 1993.

  SEARCHABLE TERMS

  Note: Entries in this index, carried over verbatim from the print edition of this title, are unlikely to correspond to the pagination of any given e-book reader. However, entries in this index, and other terms, may be easily located by using the search feature of your e-book reader.

  Abbas, Mahmoud, 270

  Abdullah II (King of Jordan), 270

  Abercrombie, Neil, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 49, 50

  Abongo, Malik, 157

  abortion, 117, 163, 226

  Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, funding for, 196

  Ackerman, Martha, 171

  Ackerman, Sam, 171

  Acree, Angela, 72, 90, 92

  Adelstein, Eric, 195

  Adi, Zulfin, 32, 33

  affirmative action, 72, 95

  Africa, Barack and Michelle’s trip to, 237–38

  Agriculture Department, U.S., Michelle’s visit to, 296

  airline bailout, 196

  Alego, Kenya, Obama-Michelle trip to, 156–57

  Alele, Suzanne, 72, 139, 146

  Ali, Muhammad, 166, 232

  Alinsky, Saul, 104–5, 111

  Altgeld Gardens (Chicago housing project), 107 122

  American Express, 7

  AmeriCorps, 161

  Annenberg Challenge, Obama as chairman of, 169

  anti-Americanism, charges about Obama’s, 270

  Ariel Capital Management, 151

  Arlington National Cemetery, Obama and Biden lay wreath at, 287

  Armstrong, Dan, 63

  Art Institute of Chicago, Obama and Michelle at, 123

  Askiar, Harmon, 36

  Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), 279

  The Audacity of Hope (Obama), 238, 239, 242, 260

  Augustin-Herron, Loretta, 105, 106, 107, 113, 158, 190

  Axelrod, David Obama first introduced to, 156

  and Obama’s inaugural address, 288 and Obama’s interest in running for President, 240, 241

  and Obama’s presidential campaign, 244, 248, 251, 253, 255, 261, 262

  and Obama’s trip to Kenya, 237

  and Obama’s U.S. Senate campaign, 205–6, 208, 209–10, 214–15, 216, 217, 218

  and Obama’s winning of presidential election, 280

  and “The Plan,” 230

  as “progressive,” 205–6

  Ayers, Bill, 164–66, 169–70

  Ayers, John, 164

  Ayers, Thomas, 164

  Baker, Vera, 223–24

  Baker, Wambu & Associates, 224

  Bali, Obama’s trip to, 164

  Bank of Hawaii, Toot at, 30, 37, 41

  Barnett, Robert, 231

  Baskin-Robbins, Obama’s summer job with, 47, 124, 133

  Bayh, Evan, 271

  Beard, Hilary, 72, 91

  Belafonte, Harry, 34, 38

  Bell, Derrick, 115

  Berenson, Bradford, 116, 136, 137

  Berkowitz, Jeff, 200

  Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation (Chicago, Illinois), 76

  Beyoncé, 287, 292

  Biden, Jill, 292

  Biden, Joe, 224, 253, 254, 271–72, 276, 284, 286, 287, 289, 290, 292, 294

  Bin Laden, Osama, 194, 270

  “Bingham Benchers,” 47, 48

  black churches call-and-response tradition in, 202

  in Chicago, 65, 104–5, 107, 202

  black churches (cont.)

  and Obama’s presidential campaign, 252, 264

  See also specific church black community and elections, 154–55, 210

  and Obama family’s resignation from Trinity, 265

  and Obama’s political ambitions, 4, 5, 151

  and Obama’s presidential campaign, 252, 263

  Black Law Students Association, 95, 115

  Black Nationalism, 172

  Black Orpheus (film), 21–22

  Black Panther Party, Illinois, 4, 111

  Black Student Alliance (Occidental College), 55–56

  Black Thoughts Table (Princeton), Michelle as member of, 90

  BlackBerry, Obama’s, 236

  BlackLetter Law Journal, 95


  Blagojevich, Rod, 200–201, 208

  Blair House (Washington, D.C.), 284, 287, 289

  Blake, Charles E., 289

  Blake, Susan, 19, 21

  Blanchard, Anita, 185, 193, 228

  Blitt, Barry, 270

  Boesche, Roger, 54

  Bouchet Academy, Michelle at, 82–83

  Box, Maxine, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 25

  Brachear, Manya, 204

  Brasuell, Jonathan, 90

  Brazile, Donna, 255

  Brooke, Edward, 229

  Brown, Alice, 69–70, 71

  Brown, Gordon, 270

  Bryn Mawr Public Elementary School. See Bouchet Academy Burns, Will, 178

  Burris, Roland, 200

  Burton-Dascher, Jill, 20

  Bush, George W., 205, 252, 256, 279, 282–83, 289, 290–91

  Bush, Laura, 261, 282–83, 289, 290–91, 293, 294

  Bushnell, Marlease, 241

  Business International Corporation, Obama at, 63–64

  Butts, Cassandra, 117, 120, 136

  Cahill, Mary Beth, 215

  California, Michelle-Barack honeymoon in, 159

  call-and-response tradition, 202

  Camp David, Obama family at, 298

  campaign finance reform, 179

  Canada, Obama’s first official trip to, 29

  car, Obama’s, 122–23