How the Obamas managed to become invisible in Washington
When Barack and Michelle Obama announced they were staying in Washington after eight years in the White House, there was a palpable buzz. Most people assumed that the Obamas would move back to Chicago, where they still own their Hyde Park home. But eight months before leaving office, the president said they would stay in town until younger daughter Sasha graduates from Sidwell Friends in June 2019.
After renting the home of former Clinton administration press secretary Joe Lockhart in Kalorama, they purchased the eight-bedroom manse for $8.1 million last spring ... Earlier this year, Michelle told Ellen DeGeneres that the family has settled into their new home. Barack, she explained, has the smallest room for his home office, Sasha a two-room suite because she’s the only child living at home, and Malia — who started at Harvard last fall after taking a gap year — has “a room in the attic somewhere.” The former president has an office in the West End, where he’s working on his memoirs and receiving visitors.
... why does it feel as if they're not really here? From a political standpoint, keeping a low profile follows a long tradition: It’s considered poor form for a president to outshine or criticize his successor, something more likely to happen when they live in the same city. But also because they travel a lot to promote their pet platforms: youth leadership, health care, women’s rights and wellness. This week, Barack is in South Africa for a Nelson Mandela birthday tribute; Michelle took in Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s show Sunday in Paris.
There’s one other factor, a more subtle and complicated aspect of their lives here: Most of their closest friends are African American. They move in an elite, exclusive circle that entertains privately and does not tweet, Instagram or share details about their own lives, much less the Obamas’. “Black Washington is not observed by white Washington,” says a friend who is not authorized to speak about the Obamas but socializes with them. “They’re still the first couple of the world. But the notion that they’re not here is something black people laugh at.”
“The Washington they travel in is appropriate to their ages. People in their 50s and 60s don’t whip out their phones and tweet about it.”
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/how-the-obamas-managed-to-become-invisible-in-washington/ar-AAAc8Tm
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