The American Journey of Barack Obama, eBook text edition

Books

EDITOR Robert Sullivan

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Barbara Baker Burrows

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Mimi Park

DEPUTY PICTURE EDITOR Christina Lieberman

WRITER-REPORTERS Hildegard Anderson (Chief), Danny Freedman (Senior Writer), Marilyn Fu

COPY Barbara Gogan (Chief), Amélie Cherlin, Heather L. Hughes, Parlan McGaw

PHOTO ASSISTANT Forrester Hambrecht

CONSULTING PICTURE EDITORS Sarah Burrows, Mimi Murphy (Rome), Tala Skari (Paris)

PRESIDENT Andrew Blau

BUSINESS MANAGER Roger Adler

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Jeff Burak

PUBLISHED BY LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY, A DIVISION OF HACHETTE BOOK GROUP, INC.

The Little, Brown name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

HACHETTE BOOK GROUP, INC.

CHAIRMAN AND CEO David Young

LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER Michael Pietsch

VICE PRESIDENT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Geoff Shandler

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Michael Sand

TIME INC. HOME ENTERTAINMENT

PUBLISHER Richard Fraiman

GENERAL MANAGER Steven Sandonato

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MARKETING SERVICES Carol Pittard

DIRECTOR, RETAIL & SPECIAL SALES Tom Mifsud

DIRECTOR, NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT Peter Harper

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, BRAND MARKETING Laura Adam

SENIOR MARKETING MANAGER Joy Butts

ASSOCIATE COUNSEL Helen Wan

BRAND MANAGER Shelley Rescober

EDITORIAL OPERATIONS Richard K. Prue, David Sloan (Directors), Richard Shaffer (Group Manager), Brian Fellows, Raphael Joa, Angel Mass, Stanley E. Moyse, Claudio Muller, Albert Rufino (Managers), Soheila Asayesh, Keith Aurelio, Charlotte Coco, Osmar Escalona, Kevin Hart, Norma Jones, Mert Kerimoglu, Rosalie Khan, Marco Lau, Po Fung Ng, Rudi Papiri, Robert Pizaro, Barry Pribula, Carina A. Rosario, Vaune Trachtman, Paul Tupay, Lionel Vargas, David Weiner

SPECIAL THANKS Andi Vaida

Copyright © 2008 by Time Inc. Home Entertainment

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Little, Brown and Company

Hachette Book Group

237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Visit our Web site at www.HachetteBookGroup.com

First eBook Edition: December 2008

ISBN: 978-0-316-06881-9

INTRODUCTION

Whenever a new President of the United States is elected, history is made. But never has it been made so dramatically as it was on November 4, 2008, when America's voters chose Barack Obama to lead our country for the next four years. To say that the election was unprecedented is to downplay its significance. This was a watershed at the least. Perhaps it was an earthquake.

How so? As the title of this book implies, Barack Obama's is a journey that, to use the old phrase, could have been made only in America. An underlying premise of our nation has been the Melting Pot, and this concept, having everything to do with democracy and freedom of opportunity, has made us who we are. Nevertheless, we have progressed two centuries and longer with an unbroken string of white, male leaders (if we are referencing the ultimate post, the presidency). The events of 2008 said many things, but what they said most clearly was: The times they are a- (finally) changin'. Ours was a country ready, willing and able to elect a woman or minority candidate. Ours was a country ready to confirm the principles that we have long said we hold dear. To some, this fact was alarming. To others, it was thrilling. To just about all, it was stunning.

Obviously, it would have taken a unique candidate to deliver America to this turn, and Barack Obama is unique in the extreme. Some lives are, no matter an observer's political, philosophical or cultural orientation, so inarguably and objectively fascinating that to gaze upon them—to see the twists and turns, the lucky breaks and the hard knocks—is a riveting pleasure. Obama's is certainly one of those fascinating, almost preposterous, lives. His story is, no matter which candidate the observer might have voted for on November 4, a thriller. And it is a story that (again, regardless of the observer's political leanings) any American should know at this point in time—and in the days and months ahead.

This book seeks to help a reader understand that story. In The American Journey of Barack Obama, we have tried to untangle the complicated heritages—the twisty paternal African side and the more straightforward maternal part that is often put forth as the "Kansas" component of Obama but that is, as we shall see, much more about Hawaii. Obama has been formed by Hawaii, then by the halls of academia, then the streets of Chicago's South Side, then the chambers of state and federal legislatures. He has been formed by his mother, Ann, and by her parents, Stanley and Madelyn, all now deceased. Obama does not necessarily become easy to understand once a reader has traveled these pages, but he becomes easier.

We have tried to produce an honest book. Yes, sure, on the pages immediately following you'll hear from a partisan voice, that of Ted Kennedy, who famously threw in with Obama when the Democratic nomination was very much up for grabs. He graciously wrote this foreword for LIFE in the days before the election on a wing and a prayer, and we are proud to publish it. But in the narrative that follows the senator's celebration of his colleague, we have tried to remain clear-eyed. Since history was being made, our goal was to write history.

Here, then, is Barack Obama—your President-elect. His has been an extraordinary American journey. Everyone agrees on this.

There will be a dramatic next chapter. Everyone agrees on this, too. And, then, future chapters. Agreed.

Where and when people disagree, they are nonetheless better off for knowing the man. —The Editors

FOREWORD

BY SENATOR EDWARD M. KENNEDY

AFTER TOO MANY LONG YEARS OF DIVISION AND DIVISIVENESS in our politics and our government, Americans hunger for change. I believe we've found at last a leader of remarkable vision and ability who can unite us to bring about that change, and his name is Barack Obama.

I've had the privilege of working with Barack Obama for the past several years in the United States Senate. I was impressed from the beginning with his special insights into the hopes and needs of average Americans. We worked closely on key issues such as jobs, education, healthcare, immigration and civil rights, and on each of these issues, I witnessed his ability to bring people together to achieve genuine progress.

But it was not until the primary election campaign that I saw the full range of Barack Obama's abilities. I had not planned to endorse any candidate in the primaries. I knew them all personally and respected them. Whenever I was asked whom I supported, I responded that I was looking for a candidate who could inspire the people, lift our vision and renew our belief that America's best days are still ahead.

The first days of 2008 brought not just the stunning results of the Iowa caucuses but an inspiring victory speech by Barack Obama. It was then that I realized that he had the extraordinary gifts of leadership and character needed to meet and master the challenges facing us at home and abroad.

I described the Barack Obama I had come to know and admire when I endorsed him on January 28. I explained that he refuses to be trapped in the patterns of the past. He is a leader who sees the world clearly without being cynical. He is a fighter who cares passionately about the causes he believes in, without demonizing those who hold a different view.

He is tough-minded, but he also has an uncommon capacity to appeal to "the better angels of our nature."

I marveled at his grit and his grace as he traveled the country, attracted record turnouts of people of all ages, and got them "fired up" and "ready to go." I've seen him connect with men and women from every walk of life and with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle. With every person he meets, every crowd he invigorates, he generates new hope that this generation of Americans can come together to meet our own rendezvous with destiny.

I remember another such time. In the 1960s, when I first came to the Senate at the age of 30, we had a new President who inspired the nation, especially the young, to seek a New Frontier. Those inspired young people marched for civil rights and sat in at lunch counters. They protested the war in Vietnam and served honorably in that war, even when they opposed it. They realized that when they asked what they could do for their country, they could change the world.

They went on to enlist in the cause of equality for women. They joined the Peace Corps, and put an American on the moon. They led the first Earth Day and issued a clarion call to protect the environment. They showed the world the true character of America at its best.

Now is another such time. I sense the same kind of yearning today, and the same kind of hunger and dedication to move America forward. I see it not just in our young people but in all our people.

As I write this, I do not know whether Barack Obama will become our nation's forty-fourth President, but I hope very much that he will. What I do know is that he has already changed our nation. In Barack Obama, we see not just the audacity, but the reality of new hope for the stronger, better and fairer America that is yet to be.

THE FAMILY TREE

IN THE HISTORY OF THE MELTING POT that is the United States, there have surely been more complicated lineages than this one that descends to Barack Obama Jr. and his children. But among our nation's leaders, few have so exotically personified the notion that an American can come from anywhere, from any background or combination of backgrounds. The Obama family tree is not a slender birch, easy to follow from trunk to uppermost branch. It is a gnarly and complicated plant, more akin to the volatile Whomping Willow of the Harry Potter saga.

On the African side of the family, the heritage is Kenyan. There are many, many relations, as Obama's father, paternal grandfather and paternal great-grandfather each had several wives and many children. Of particular significance to Obama is his grandfather's third wife, Sarah, whom the politician calls his grandmother. This is because, after his biological grandmother, Akuma, left her family when her children were young, Sarah became the moving force in the life of Obama's father, Barack senior. Of passing interest is that the grandfather in question, Hussein Onyango Obama, fought for the colonial overlord, Great Britain, in World War I. Also: The first person in the Obama family to leave Africa and live in another country was Obama's own father, Barack senior. So Obama's people never lived under slavery in the United States—or anywhere else.

The American saga leading to the birth of Stanley Ann Dunham, Obama's mother, on November 29, 1942, is a pip indeed. Hers is an old family in the country's history, though some of the peripheral—and most colorful—claimed links remain, even in this age of sophisticated genealogical science, to be authoritatively confirmed. Yes, Obama is, in fact, distantly related to George W. Bush's vice president, Dick Cheney—and probably to Bush himself, if we venture back to the 1600s—something that has made for great sport among late-night comics. Whether he is also kin to Wild Bill Hickok, as he implied at a campaign stop in Springfield, Missouri—"[He] had his first duel in the town square here. And the family legend is that he is a distant cousin of mine"—still requires a rubber stamp.

But Obama is eligible for membership in the Sons of the American Revolution, and when he wrote in his memoir Dreams from My Father, "One of my great-great-grandfathers, Christopher Columbus Clark, had been a decorated Union soldier, his wife's mother was rumored to have been a second cousin of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy," he was technically incorrect only in that Clark was his great-great-great-grandfather. As the allusion to Davis might imply: Yes, several of Obama's maternal ancestors were slave owners. If some see this as an irony, Barack Obama does not. "That's no surprise," he says. "That's part of our tortured, tangled history."

In the current generation—not the very freshest one, but the one involving Barack and his siblings as opposed to their kids—affairs are only scarcely less interesting. Stanley Ann Dunham was Barack Obama Sr.'s second wife, and with him conceived Barack junior, the subject of our book. Ann and Obama Sr. divorced, and Ann married Lolo Soetoro; they had a daughter, Maya, with whom Barack junior is close and of whom we will learn more later. Then Ann died—of ovarian cancer at the tragically young age of 52—in 1995.

Earlier, Barack Hussein Obama Sr. had left three wives—plus seven sons and a daughter—when he died in 1982, at the age of 46, in a car crash in Nairobi. His son in America, Barack, has come to know his African half sister, Auma, very well; and Malik Abongo (Roy) Obama was Barack's best man at his and Michelle's wedding in Chicago in 1992. But some of his African half siblings, such as George, who was born of a woman not married to his father, are known to Obama only slightly. In the late summer of 2008, a story emerged that George was living on less than a dollar a month in a shack outside Nairobi, and was reluctant to speak of his relationship to the U.S. presidential hopeful, lest he embarrass him.

Maya once recalled fondly a special day, particularly so for her half brother, Barack: "I remember his wedding. And there were everything from the very fair Kansas complexion, you know, the Scots-Irish thing, to the blue-black Kenyan. And we looked like the rainbow tribe—and me in between, I'm Indonesian.

"The united colors …

"Never a dull moment, right?"

ROOTS

AMERICANS, FAMOUSLY, COME FROM EVERYWHERE. BARACK OBAMA'S PEOPLE HAVE COME FROM VASTLY DIFFERENT PLACES, BUT WHAT HAS SET HIM APART AS A PUBLIC FIGURE—WHAT HAS, FOR SOME, DEFINED HIM—IS THAT HIS FATHER CAME FROM AFRICA.

NOTHING CAN BE PREDICTED