The XX Factor: What women really think.

Dreams From His Mother

I, too, was fascinated by the piece about Obama's late mother, which seemed an overdue corrective to the attention typically given to his late dad. She was such an interesting mix of ‘50s and ‘60s (and '70s and '80s and '90s ...) womanhood: marrying at 18 and having a baby right away, as good American girls did in the middle of the last century, except that she married an African exchange student, unusual at the time among young women who had grown up in Kansas. Then ending up an anthropologist and globe-trotting champion of microcredit, with two children and two ex-husbands and a host of cultural ties. Given Barack Obama's own, more conventional, family setup, it seems unlikely her casual notions about marriage will tarnish him among voters. But did it strike anyone else as surprising that Obama himself declined to comment for the Times piece? It is hard to get an interview with him, it's true—now more than ever—but not long ago he did give the Post's Kevin Merida some phone time for a piece on his father. This is the first substantial article I've seen on the mother's influence, and I would have thought he'd want to say something for the record about the impact she and her liberating notions must have had on him growing up. If either of my kids runs for president, and they are asked about me, I would like them to say something. Anything, really. I'll just get that out there right now.