Father-in-chief: President Barack Obama with daughters Sasha and Malia and dog Bo. White House photo by Lawrence Jackson.
by Mark Silva
On this Father's Day, President Barack Obama could be heard talking about the "myth'' of a missing father with which he was raised, a story told, for his benefit, by a loving mother.
"He wasn't around," Obama said, with a certain understatement about the dad who abandoned him, in an interview of the president conducted by Harry Smith and aired on CBS News' Sunday Morning.
.
"One of the things I benefited from was my mother was so generous in describing him,'' Obama said. "He was smart and, you know, hard-working and talented... and so as a young boy I could have a sense that he was an important person. It was the myth that I was chasing as opposed to knowing who he really was.
"But despite the tremendous efforts of my mom, no, there's no doubt that that still left a hole in me,'' said the president, father of two young girls and determined today to be the father that his wasn't. He convened a conference on fatherhood at the White House on Friday, and the White House says Obama is intent on starting a "national conversation'' about the importance of it.
"Fathers are our first teachers and coaches," Obama told Smith. "They're our mentors and they're our role models. They set an example of success and they push us to succeed; encourage us when we're struggling; and they love us even when we disappoint them, and they stand by us when nobody else will."
"Any fool can have a child,'' candidate Obama once told a Chicago church audience, on this day a year ago (see the video below, and more of the CBS interview below the fold.) "It's the courage to raise a child that makes you a father.''
In his own life, he remembers the fleeting moments when he saw that father who had left the family in Hawaii.
"The incredible importance that the smallest gesture can make by a father,'' Obama told CBS' Smith in the piece aired today. "I still remember he gave me my first basketball. And it wasn't until much later in life that I realized that my passionate interest in basketball might have brought out of just that small gesture of him giving me a basketball for Christmas. He took me to a jazz concert. And it wasn't until later in life that I realized maybe that's why I got really interested in jazz."
He learned about fatherhood from others.
"Well you know, I had a mother and grandparents," Obama said. "Where I learned to be a father was looking at some people that I respected. Michelle's father was just a wonderful man. I mean, here's a guy who had multiple sclerosis at the age of 30.
"And by the time I knew him he was just barely struggling with two crutches to get around. And yet he went to every one of Michelle's dance recitals, every one of her brother's basketball games. And it reminded me that, you know, whatever the hardships, whatever the obstacles, you can be a good dad."
Now that his own life is under such perpetual scrutiny, Obama maintains that there still is only one critic who counts.
""Well, there's no scrutiny more powerful that Michelle's scrutiny," the president told his interviewer. "So I don't care what other folks are saying. It's my wife and my kids feeling I am there for them."
Comments
"Any fool can have a child. It's the courage to raise a child that makes you a father."
Yesm, indeed. Nice photo choice. The way the flowers pick up the shoes and pants against the green. I've been noticing the photographs that you've been selecting for Obama stuff. The rose garden, this, and the "yellow orbs" in the background, particularly. Lovely family.
Posted by: SharpieAccentHighlighter | June 21, 2009 12:56 PM
I don't keep Father's Day. That's your day. I don't keep all your other days like the 4th, Christmas, Easter. I keep my Father's Days, His feast days as given in Leviticus 23. Let's see who does a better job at being a father.
Posted by: Harold Reimann | June 21, 2009 3:20 PM
Obama is not one to lecture about being there as a father. Being a provider and a father are two different things. It has been said by him and Michelle Obama that the one good thing about being in the White House is that he gets to be a father, he gets to be there for his girls. Prior to that, the was out of their lives for much of their childhood, on a selfish track on himself for his desire to be in politics and campaigning. He chose to do that. I am happy that the White House has given him a chance to reconnect with his daughters and see them on a regular basis. While I may not agree with most of his policies, I do enjoy seeing this family being a family and hope that he can serve as a role model for those that don't have a role model. Fortunately for me, I do not have to look up to him or anybody else outside of my family, but I do understand there are those who can use a role model and I hope that President Obama can fulfill that role of a role model as a father, now that he is a bit more stable and can be a father instead of just a provider.
Posted by: Juan Diego | June 21, 2009 4:17 PM
Good grief, Mark, please stick a fork in your love affair with the Messiah. He's not that great of man. Just read John Kass's column today. Obama is just another crooked and corrupt Chicago Democrat.
Posted by: John D | June 21, 2009 5:27 PM
It can't be overstated, our country is falling apart because of the absences of fathers. In the worst parts of this city, where crime and poverty run rampant, there are a lot of children with no father around. Teachers and the police can only do so much.
Posted by: Common sense | June 21, 2009 6:55 PM
I am glad he's finally discovered what it means to be a good father. But I resent the lecturing--since, as he admitted himself many times, he has not been around for his children or his wife prior to becoming president. So now he's a role model after absenting himself from his kids life for 8 years? What if he hadn't become president? I'd bet he'd still be away from his family gearing up for 2012. His real message is: you can become a good father once you fulfill your ambitions. Just look at me. How is that different from his own absent dad? Kind of hypocritical if you ask me.
Posted by: Lily | June 21, 2009 8:28 PM
How delusional. Journalists covering the White House should abstain from covering the White House just in case they might be deemed in love with the President of the freaking Free World. Why do Republicans hate the US?
Posted by: mop-up | June 21, 2009 9:33 PM
I have to suport everything obama sayed cause is true.And he don't lied any countries.I like obama cause his knows how to talk with peoples in all the countries so very day like to read the word of obama can u sending veryday news of obama?im cecilia steven from Tanzania
Posted by: cecilia steven | June 22, 2009 3:52 AM