Guests at another recent White House dinner who discussed the issue included Malcolm Gladwell, the writer, Toni Morrison, the novelist, Vinod Khosla, Sun Microsystems co-founder, Eva Longoria, the actress, and Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn billionaire. But the newspaper reported it was part of an effort by top Obama loyalists inside and outside the White House to recruit donors for the post-presidential activities.
Advertisement
“Where we’ll end up, I don’t know yet”, said Marty Nesbitt, the president’s longtime Chicago friend who is leading an extensive planning effort for Mr. Obama’s library and an anticipated global foundation.
The Obama foundation announced earlier this year it had chosen Chicago – Mr Obama’s pre-White House home – as the site of its presidential library.
The publication also reports director Steven Spielberg has offered to help with the digital library by developing a “narrative” for Obama’s life after leaving office following a dinner meeting in Beverly Hills in June.
The Times story speculates that Obama’s visit to a federal prison and his eulogy for one of the Charleston church massacre victims indicate the president will focus on criminal justice reform and race relations.
Though the library will be in Chicago, aides told the Times the Obamas could live in Washington after January 2017 while Sasha, 14, their younger daughter, finished high school.
There is also speculation that the president may choose to base himself in New York, where he studied at Columbia University, and set up a policy foundation.
Or at least that’s what I bet Barack wants to do. Ideally, one adviser said, a person in Kenya could put on a pair of virtual reality goggles and be transported to Mr. Obama’s 2008 speech on race in Philadelphia.
President Obama hasn’t come out publicly with what his plans are for his post-presidential life, but in an interview with Tumblr last year, he commented on what he would be doing 10 years from now. The president took more than 30 seconds to respond, in a manner that suggested he had not yet settled on a good answer. How prominent should Obama seek to be, especially in the first few years?
Advertisement
That number, according to The Times, is the minimum for an Obama endowment. That’s where I met my wife.
