In “Obama: The Movie,” the newest senator from Illinois envisions Denzel playing the title role. Then he admits the Oscar-winner might be “a little too good-looking.”
But Barack Obama, starstruck when he met Robin Williams and Stevie Wonder on the campaign trail, has become a star in his own right. He prefers martinis to basic beer, leaves adoring fans in his wake and recently was seen TV-hopping on the media circuit like P. Diddy pimping a new album.
Obama catapulted into the national eye this summer after a home-run speech at the Democratic National Convention, and the celebrity buzz has since become deafening.
Last month he charmed his way through appearances on “Late Show with David Letterman” and “The View” to promote his autobiography, “Dreams of My Father.” Letterman went to town on Obama’s name, while “View” co-host Barbara Walters compared him to Nelson Mandela.
In an interview with RedEye last week, however, Obama waved his hand as if to bat away the talk about celebrity. Either Obama was weary of the label or still recovering from a bout of stomach flu. “I was flying out to have lunch with Warren Buffett,” he says, “so my whole goal of the day was not to throw up on him.”
Nor does Obama’s campaign headquarters on the 17th floor of a downtown Chicago building jell with the picture of Mr. Rock Star Politician.
Obama’s narrow office is plain and mostly boxed up, except for a few items. On the wall hangs a framed black-and-white poster of Muhammad Ali in the ring, which will travel to Washington along with the senator-elect. “That’s been my good luck charm,” he says.
Luck. Yeah, that’s it.
The hoopla is over, Obama explains in his thoughtful, deliberate manner.
“Campaigning is fun and gratifying, but the reason I’m in this is to do the work,” the former state senator says.
The campaign had its perks, Obama admits, like the night Williams and Wonder performed at a fundraising event.
“I grew up on Stevie Wonder. He sort of provided the soundtrack to my youth, so having him there right up on stage doing a concert to help my campaign, that was the one time I had to pinch myself,” he said.
Yet all the attention–such as traveling with an entourage of aides–seemed a bit much for the former university professor who hailed his own cab in Washington last month, thank you very much.
“That’s not my style,” he says. Obama drove himself everywhere, in his own car, up until a few months before the primary, when his campaign staff finally persuaded him to get a driver to chauffeur him around in a black SUV.
A-list celebs have no qualms traveling with a posse–P. Diddy had someone to hold his umbrella and even Hillary Clinton has someone to carry her purse–but Obama’s ideal crew contains just his wife, Michelle, and two daughters, Sasha and Malia.
“Whenever I can hang with them, I’m happy.”
The real satisfaction of the campaign, he says, was connecting with people. “People the conventional wisdom said you could never connect with. Sitting in some diner or VFW hall, talking to farmers and finding out you had a lot in common.”
Now it’s game-time. As a rookie, Obama will work out of a small, window-less basement office in the U.S. Senate for the next three or four months before settling into more permanent digs. He’ll stagger out of bed in the morning, not an easy task for this night owl who hits his stride after dark. He’ll assume the jet-setter’s life, traveling back to Chicago nearly every weekend.
But the biggest perk of office, Obama says, is having access to the smartest people in the country and their ideas.
“You can get on the phone, call anybody you want and they’ll take your phone call,” he says. “I can call Warren Buffett and ask him what he thinks about the economy. I can call former national security advisers and ask them what they think about nuclear proliferation. I can call great writers and ask them what we can do to encourage literacy.
“That’s a lot of fun.”
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asneumer@tribune.com
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A few of Obama’s favorite things
Chicago restaurants:
“There’s this Mexican place called Chilpancingo. That’s one of our favorite places to eat. Also a wonderful Italian place on Walton Street called Pane Caldo. Really good, a little pricey but worth it.”
Sport to play:
“I used to play a lot of basketball before the campaign and still love playing basketball, but my staff was afraid of me getting injured. They pictured [me] tearing up an ACL, being on crutches for the entire campaign. I did martial arts and tae kwon do for a while. Yoga, I love to do that … but these days the most efficient workout is getting on the treadmill for half an hour.”
Actor to portray him in a movie:
“I’d love to say Denzel [Washington], but he’d be a little too good-looking. I do have a friend named Harry Lennox from Chicago, an actor at the Goodman, who people always say looks just like me.”
Heroes in history:
“Some people in politics–Lincoln, FDR, Gandhi, King–then there’s people outside politics like Picasso or John Coltrane. When I think about what binds them together, I’m enamored with people who change the framework, who don’t take something as a given, but scramble it. So Gandhi being able to say what looks like weakness can be a strength and Picasso mastering realism and then flipping it.”
Food:
“Nuts, that’s my big snack food. I always have some almonds around. … “But I’ll be honest: fried chicken wings. If they’re in front of me, I just can’t resist them. I just go nuts.”
Leisure reading:
“I spend a lot of time reading policy wonkish-type books, but if I had my druthers, I’m a fiction guy. I’ve learned more from reading fiction than I have from anything else. My tastes are pretty wide-ranging … from Toni Morrison to E.L. Doctorow to Don DeLillo to Shakespeare.”
Vacation:
“I’m one of these people who distinguish between vacation and travel. The ideal vacation is what I’m going to be doing for two weeks in December, which is packing up my kids and wife and going to Hawaii to visit my grandmother and sit on the beach. But traveling, being able to just take off in solitary contemplation in very foreign places, that’s something I haven’t done in a long time but that I love to do.”
Household chores:
“I’m pretty diligent about doing the dishes at night, or at least getting them in the dishwasher. I can’t say I enjoy it, but my wife has trained me. I enjoy doing the laundry, but not folding up the clothes afterward, which she sees as a failing of mine.”
— Alison Neumer
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Barack casts his ballot
Being a leader means making tough decisions. Sen.-elect Obama weighed in on some of RedEye’s hard-hitting questions.
— Alison Neumer
Jay-Z or U2?
U2
Halle Berry or Angelina Jolie?
Halle
Steak or lobster?
Steak
McDonald’s or Burger King?
Neither. Obama says he’s “not a big fast food guy.”
‘Star Wars’ or ‘Lord of the Rings’?
“Star Wars”
Mac or PC?
PC
Beer or martini?
Martini. “Every time. That’s easy.”
Chicago summer or Hawaiian winter?
Chicago Summer
Deep dish or thin crust?
Thin crust
Sox or Cubs?
Sox
