Change Comes: After 4 Years, Friends See Shifts in the Obamas

[DonViejo]

By JODI KANTOR
Published: January 19, 2013

Barack and Michelle Obama have spent more than a thousand days on display before the nation’s eyes, but the personal changes they have undergone can be hard to detect.

Up close, though, those who know the Obamas say they can see an accumulation of small shifts in the president and the first lady since they walked the inaugural parade route four years ago. The man who wanted to change the nature of Washington now warns job candidates that it is hard to get anything done there. Not so long ago, he told others that he did not need a presidential library, a tribute to himself costing hundreds of millions of dollars. Now a former aide, Susan Sher, is quietly eyeing possibilities for him in Chicago.

The first lady who wanted to forge connections with her new city found that even viewing the cherry blossoms required a hat, sunglasses and wheedling the Secret Service. In a demonstration of how difficult it can be for any president or first lady to sustain relationships, Mrs. Obama stopped taking on girls in a mentorship program she founded because of concerns that other teenagers would envy the lucky advisees, according to an aide.

When the president returned from consoling families of teachers and children killed in the Newtown, Conn., massacre — he wept as they handed him photos and told him stories of victim after victim — aides could see in his face the toll of absorbing the nation’s traumas. “This is what I do,” Mr. Obama told them.

-snip-

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/us/politics/after-4-years-friends-see-shifts-in-obamas.html

[pipoman]

1. Every President in my lifetime

has almost looked like a different person when they left office..all have aged beyond the years of their term..

[heaven05]

2. has

never failed to be a observation of mine, also.

[silvershadow]

3. How true that is...right before our eyes. nt

[caseymoz]

9. Actually, that appears to be a myth

They don't seem to age faster than anyone else above fifty:

http://www.livescience.com/17335-presidents-longevity-aging.html

[brush]

15. That's what I always thought

Everyone if their late forties and early fifties start to get gray hair, and most presidents are around that age when they first get elected. JFK was in his forties but didn't get to serve long enough to go gray, at least I don't remember any shots of a graying JFK.

[GoCubsGo]

17. I am about 6 months older than President Obama.

He is graying slightly faster than I am. I certainly have many more gray hairs than I did on this day four years ago. Hell, I have way more than I did a year ago. I am sure stress may have contributed to mine and the President's, as has genetics. But, as you point out, we are just at that age...

[morningglory]

23. Except Joe Scarborough. nt

[catbyte]

11. Bush 44 looked the least effected. Probably because he only really served 4 years

Cheney was POTUS first term. Bush ended up looking like an alcoholic.

[Pirate Smile]

12. I saw Lincoln (for the second time) last night & in it Grant tells Lincoln that it looks like he

aged 10 years in the last 1 year.

[renegade000]

18. i liked that line especially for a reason that might have been unknown to the screenwriter

I recently got through H.G. Brands "The Man Who Saved the Union" (a bio about Grant), and I remember a bit about how people told Grant that he looked about 10 years younger once the Civil War started.

[medeak]

21. Lincoln plaster casts of face few years apart

are unbelievably different. Striking to see how he aged. In DC museum

[BigDemVoter]

14. I agree with the exception of GWB.

His aging seemed the normal type, as he never seemed disturbed or felt responsible for anything he ever did or did not do.

[lunatica]

4. If they take the job seriously it changes them

Bush didn't change much. Cheney was already a vampire when he got there. He still is.

[mountain grammy]

5. Right you are!

[secondwind]

6. RIGHT ON BOTH COUNTS.... Bush 'breezed' through his 8 years... didn't learn much from the

experience

[NBachers]

7. Bush has one of those Theodore Bundy faces that reflects a disconnect from the realities of life

[Bainbridge Bear]

10. It isn't just that dumbass "What Me Worry?" face

of Bush. He also shares psychological similarities with Bundy and others. Bush is a textbook
(DSM IV, et al) sociopath. He is a war criminal, a serial liar, he has absolutely no empathy for others and he should be in prison along with the other gangsters that helped turn this country into the world's pariah. You talk about a disconnect. Here is just one of many examples from this appalling person. Late in his 2nd term he was asked by a reporter how he would be judged by history. Bush's response, "In history?.... In history, we'll all be dead!" That is a deep as it gets with George W. Bush, the worst "president" in U.S. history.

"Don't throw the Constitution in my face, it's just a goddam piece of paper." - George W. Bush

[Brainstormy]

13. So true, the adjective

"incurious" always comes to mind when I think of Bush. Imagine a man of his age and wealth, having been a governor and running for a president, and he'd never been outside the United States. Just astonishing.

[Botany]

8. You can see the weight of the world on the President's shoulders in this pix

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1232940.1357298112!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/article-obama-newtown4n-0104.jpg

President Obama being told about Newtown

[brush]

16. Thanks for posting this

[Arkana]

19. The realities of the job beat it out of him, sadly.

Also, wtf at saying he didn't need a Presidential library? Every President gets one. It's not just a tribute to his administration--it's a place for research too.

[treestar]

20. It's history

I don't see a problem with the expense at all.

Yeah, some people, have to find something to complain about.

[csziggy]

22. Barack Obama's Presidential Library could be a leadership center

To encourage young people of all kinds to become leaders. BO shows that you do not have to be from an elite family to make it to the top and his library would be the perfect place to promote future leaders from all levels and facets of society.

I would contribute to that!