Barack Obama Explains the Meaning Behind His New Book, “A Promised Land”

 

Former President Barack Obama has kicked off his media tour in promotion of his new memoir, A Promised Land.

Recently, he sat down with the folks at 60 Minutes, where he talked about the meaning behind the book’s title, shared advice to President Trump, and spoke about why he regrets keeping quiet about Trump for so long.

About the meaning of the book, he said: “Even though we may not get there in our lifetimes, even if we experience hardships and disappointments along the way, I still have faith we can create a more perfect union — not a perfect union, but a more perfect union.”

On writing about his wife Michelle’s strenuous objection to his decision to run for president way back when (he served from 2009-17), he said in the book that her reaction had been: “The answer is no. I do not want you running for president. God, Barack, when is it going to be enough?”

And when his interview on 60 Minutes, Pelley, asked why Obama chose to run despite her protestations, he said: “It’s a legitimate question,” adding, according to THR, that “his president run came after a series of other races, including his successful run for U.S. Senate and his failed run for Congress two years before that. Not to mention, they had two young daughters and Michelle was working full-time.”

The former President continued:

“I ask myself in the book, ‘How much of this is megalomania, how much of this is was vanity, how much is me trying to prove something to myself? Over time, she made a conclusion: ‘I shouldn’t stand in the way of this.’ She did so grudgingly, and the fact that I ended up winning didn’t necessarily alleviate her frustrations because the toll it takes on families is real. … The fact that she put up with it and forgave me — it was an act of grace that I am grateful for, and I’m not sure I deserved it.”

About the note he left to Trump on his last day as president, he said the note read in part: “We are just temporary occupants of this office. It’s up to us to leave the instruments of our democracy as least as strong as we found them.”

He said a lot more. Read it here.