In the final pages of her 421-page memoir, Michelle Obama answers the question many political observers have been canvassing since the 2016 US presidential election.
“Because people often ask, I’ll say it here directly: I have no intention of running for office, ever,” writes Obama. “I’ve never been a fan of politics, and my experience over the last ten years has done little to change that.’’
In Becoming, which had its global release last week, Obama makes it clear that it was her husband’s decision to enter national politics, not hers.
Becoming, by Michelle Obama, details the former first lady’s journey to, and while living in, the White House.
And even though a recent Axios survey named Michelle Obama ahead of five other high-profile Democrats including Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Oprah Winfrey as people who could defeat President Donald Trump in 2020, the former First Lady remains firm.
“I continue to be put off by the nastiness … this idea that we’re supposed to choose one side and sick to it, unable to listen and compromise, or sometimes even to be civil,” she explains.
“I do believe that at its best, politics can be a means for positive change, but this arena is just not for me.’’
Hear, hear! After reading Becoming, I am convinced that people of grace and intelligence better serve their communities by staying away from Congress, or 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the House of Reps or the Senate, the Budestag, the Riksdag, the Palace of Westminster, or wherever democracy is practised.
Obama, 54, is a lawyer, an administrator, an activist. She has been a working mother of young children, she campaigned for more than a decade by her husband’s side, she has witnessed global leadership up close and personal, she has represented her country on the world stage, and she is a brilliant communicator.
Becoming, by Michelle Obama, details the former first lady’s journey to, and while living in, the White House.
She is also popular. More than 100,000 tickets to attend her 10-city book tour talks have been purchased by Americans. Her approval rating as First Lady has never slipped below the 60s. And Becoming last week achieved record first-day sales for a memoir – 725,00 in the US and Canada, while the first batch of 50,000 copies in Australia has almost sold out and a second print run is imminent.
If we’re talking administrative ability and voter appeal, Obama certainly has the goods.
And wow, can she can write. Upon leaving the White House Barack and Michelle Obama landed a lucrative joint book deal for separate memoirs with Random House worth $US65 million.
At the time much was made of the former President’s credentials in this area (he is already the author of three books). His wife, however, was the big unknown. She may be admired, but could she pull off an autobiography of substance? And would it be a bestseller?
As the daily sales figures are calculated at PRH’s headquarters, one thing is clear: Michelle Obama has the writer’s gift. She has a beautiful and warm tone, an elegant style, she did not rely upon a ghost writer, she closely edited the book herself, and is now working hard on the publicity trail.
Actor and comedian Robin Williams once said: “No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world’’. At the bookshop we have a saying that books “can – and have – made the world a much, much better place’’. If you’re Michelle Obama, why on earth would you take the plunge into partisan politics?
Those in our fifties and sixties thought we could have it all, and we did. But, like Michelle Obama, we exhausted ourselves in the process.
Hers may be a particularly American story, but Obama’s messages are universal. And regardless of your politics, men and women of all backgrounds will relate to her story.
Meanwhile for we, the daughters of the mid-20th Century feminists, her anecdotes are all-too-familiar. Those of us in our 50s and 60s thought we could have it all – and we did. But, like Michelle Obama, we exhausted ourselves in the process.
In Becoming Michelle Obama tells us of the competitive world of law, her early years with Barack as they saved for their first home and juggled long hours and stress, how they tried desperately to have a child, her miscarriage and subsequent grief, their decision to attend couples’ therapy, and then the frustration of trying to bring up two small girls and achieve her own career KPIs with a mostly-absent politician husband.
“In our life before children, such frustrations might have seemed petty, but as a working full-time mother with a half-time spouse and a pre-dawn wake-up time, I felt my patience slipping away until finally, at some point, it just fell off the cliff,’’ Obama recalls.
“When Barack made it home, he’d either find me raging or unavailable, having flipped off every light in the house and gone sullenly to sleep.”
Michelle Obama’s charm lies in her sharp intelligence, own humility, her humor, and her ability to self-deprecate and self-analyse. And even when she accepted that for eight years she must forego her career and become First Lady, Obama still wanted to do something productive with that very special commission.
She networked, she studied, she devised. And she took people on the journey. This is why her legacies in children’s health, education, empowering young women, caring for families of those in military service, and creating employment opportunities for less-advantaged young people remain intact today.
“My husband is making his own adjustments to life after the White House, catching his own breath,’’ she writes. “And here I am, in this new place, with a lot I want to say.”
Please keep saying it, Michelle.
Corrie Perkin is a bookseller, journalist and podcaster who can be heard on Don’t Shoot The Messenger, with Caroline Wilson, and The Book Pod.
Becoming by Michelle Obama is published by Viking ($49.99)
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