Fifty things you might not know about Barack Obama
• He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics
• He was known as “O’Bomber” at high school for his skill at basketball
• His name means “one who is blessed” in Swahili
• His favourite meal is wife Michelle’s shrimp linguini
• He won a Grammy in 2006 for the audio version of his memoir, Dreams From My Father
• He is left-handed – the sixth post-war president to be left-handed
• He has read every Harry Potter book
• He owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali
• He worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager and now can’t stand ice cream
• His favourite snacks are chocolate-peanut protein bars
• He ate dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper while living in Indonesia
• He can speak Spanish
• While on the campaign trail he refused to watch CNN and had sports channels on instead
• His favourite drink is black forest berry iced tea
• He promised Michelle he would quit smoking before running for president – he didn’t
• He kept a pet ape called Tata while in Indonesia
• He can bench press an impressive 200lbs
• He was known as Barry until university when he asked to be addressed by his full name
• His favourite book is Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
• He visited Wokingham, Berks, in 1996 for the stag party of his half-sister’s fiancé, but left when a stripper arrived
• His desk in his Senate office once belonged to Robert Kennedy
• He and Michelle made $4.2 million (£2.7 million) last year, with much coming from sales of his books
• His favourite films are Casablanca and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
• He carries a tiny Madonna and child statue and a bracelet belonging to a soldier in Iraq for good luck
• He applied to appear in a black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee.
• His favourite music includes Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Bach and The Fugees
• He took Michelle to see the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing on their first date
• He enjoys playing Scrabble and poker
• He doesn’t drink coffee and rarely drinks alcohol
• He would have liked to have been an architect if he were not a politician
• As a teenager he took drugs including marijuana and cocaine
• His daughters’ ambitions are to go to Yale before becoming an actress (Malia, 10) and to sing and dance (Sasha, 7)
• He hates the youth trend for trousers which sag beneath the backside
• He repaid his student loan only four years ago after signing his book deal
• His house in Chicago has four fire places
• Daughter Malia’s godmother is Jesse Jackson’s daughter Santita
• He says his worst habit is constantly checking his BlackBerry
• He uses an Apple Mac laptop
• He drives a Ford Escape Hybrid, having ditched his gas-guzzling Chrysler 300
• He wears $1,500 (£952) Hart Schaffner Marx suits
• He owns four identical pairs of black size 11 shoes
• He has his hair cut once a week by his Chicago barber, Zariff, who charges $21 (£13)
• His favorite fictional television programmes are Mash and The Wire
• He was given the code name “Renegade” by his Secret Service handlers
• He was nicknamed “Bear” by his late grandmother
• He plans to install a basketball court in the White House grounds
• His favourite artist is Pablo Picasso
• His speciality as a cook is chilli
• He has said many of his friends in Indonesia were “street urchins”
• He keeps on his desk a carving of a wooden hand holding an egg, a Kenyan symbol of the fragility of life
• His late father was a senior economist for the Kenyan government
Courtesy Telegraph UK
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Very interesting. What I like about this list is that it gives us a better sense of the man as an ordinary human being like the rest of us.
Thank you for sharing!
Brenda
Why do people read the main story and immediately paste the whole thing into the comments section, I’ve seen this at so many blogs.
I think Obama said that Yes he did inhale, that was the idea.
so yeah, more human than most politicians.
Wolfie!
Saddam O’Bomber? That should go well with the yanks…
He was born in Kenya and flew to the US for a birth certificate
He was actually born in Hawaii, genius.
I believe I’ve read several accounts that his favorite movie is “The Godfather”
How much of this is true?
Oh, and @Wolfie, Those are trackbacks. When someone links to this blog, an excerpt of their post is copied back to this blog as a comment.
Great list and nice to see the regular guy side of our President.
Oh, for those still bitching about Obabma’s birthplace…does not matter! Mom was a US citizen so that makes him one regardless of place of birth. Think Angelina and Brad’s kids that were born in France. They are automatically citizens.
Delaney:
The constitutional requirement for Presidents is “native born” U.S. citizens, not just citizens. And Obama is native born.
BTW, McCain’s birth on U.S. territory in the Panama Canal Zone is/was problematic for some folks.
I did know in fact because I’ve seen this list before…
I am not sure I can trust him anymore he doesn’t like ice cream and doesn’t drink coffee. I am surprised McCain and Palin didn’t make more of this…
Nice list, I didn’t know many of them.
Ya, my best friend was born in Germany and we would rip on him for years about not being able to become president. He has recently made us eat our words by carrying around paper work that proves us wrong.
obama smokin weed? damn i gotta chill with him sometime.
the basket ball court in the white house seems cool
i can imagine him doing a slam dunk over some old white guy
no source.
Six left-handed post-war presidents? A war is still going on.
Barack Obama is a Leo , Born August, 4th, 1961. A study of his birth chart would be quite revealing. Bill Clinton is also a Leo. They are both endowed with great courage and magnanimity. Also oratory among many other outstanding qualities.
——–Doug Rosbury
Unlike Bill Clinton Mr. Obama requires a teleprompter to blow his nose! Even a blind man can see how fake obama is! What a jerk!!!!
Paul above = loser. Loser troll.