After a week of scandals for his administration, President Obama took a break from politics to get personal.
by Annie Scudder
After a week of scandals for his administration, President Obama took a break from politics to get personal. On Sunday at Morehouse College's graduation, the president opened up about his role as dad-in-chief: "My whole life, I've tried to be for Michelle and my girls what my father wasn't for my mother and me." Speaking at the historically black and all-male college, Sasha and Malia's dad said, "I want to break that cycle — where a father's not at home, where a father's not helping to raise that son and daughter. I want to be a better father, a better husband, a better man." His message was also inclusive of different sexualities. He implored the all-male crowd to be the best partner "to your wife, or your boyfriend, or your partner."
The president even went so far as to imagine what he would be thinking about on his deathbed and admitted it would not be legislation he passed or the Nobel Prize he won. "I will be thinking about that walk I took with my daughters. I'll be thinking about a lazy afternoon with my wife. I'll be thinking about sitting around the dinner table and seeing them happy and healthy and knowing that they were loved." Obama, who followed up Michelle Obama's Friday speech at Bowie State University, also frankly touched on race, a topic he often avoids. "At some point in life as an African American you have to work twice as hard as anyone else if you want to get by." He encouraged the "Morehouse men" to be good role models for their communities. See photos, as well as a video, now.
