Of course, Buzzfeed would be biased, because the people who write for Buzzfeed are the sort of people who consider NYC the beating heart of the universe…
Barack and Michelle Obama are seriously considering moving to New York after his presidency, and building the Obama Library at the city’s Columbia University, sources told BuzzFeed News.
Columbia’s bid on the library — and the notion of the Obamas in New York — has been widely viewed as a kind of courtesy to the Big Apple, with the universal assumption among even the Obamas’ inner circle that the couple would move back to Chicago in January 2017. But sources familiar with the process said their thinking has changed in recent months, the result both of messy Chicago politics and a personal craving for a new beginning when they leave the White House for the last time as residents. The first family fears the Chicago they left is not one they want to return to, and a source close to the family said the long-shot New York library bid has emerged as a serious alternative…
The Barack Obama Foundation is expected to reveal the president and first lady’s decision on where to build the Obama presidential library and museum after an April 7 runoff election between Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Jesus “Chuy” Garcia…
… or should this be read as a Rahm-esque “Vote for me or the library gets it” threat?
Of course, there’s no reason why the Obama Library and the Obama family have to be in the same city. And if you want the perfect combination of access-to-everything and (as close as an ex-President will ever get to) the freedom of anonymity, it’s hard to imagine a better U.S. city than NYC. After eight years in the White House fishbowl, spending at least a few years in a place that takes pride in Not Caring Who You Are might seem like a welcome respite.
mai naem mobile
Hawaii is the answer.
Elizabelle
I realize NYC is easier to get to, but would be great to have the Obama Library in Hawaii. So many of its collections could be available digitally.
Personally, the idea of the Obamas moving to NYC bothers me a bit. I worry they’ll be associating with the vampire squid set too, too much. I think it’s kind of tone deaf, but what do I know ….
gogol's wife
@Elizabelle:
Maybe Michelle has said, it’s my turn to have a career, and has something in mind in New York.
Tree With Water
I wish that just once a former POTUS would foreswear building their own library, and simply hand over everything to the Library of Congress..
dmsilev
Honestly, this is a somewhat silly article. It hasn’t been much of a secret that Columbia’s bid is and was a very serious one right from the get-go. I doubt also that Rahm’s election will make much of a difference either way.
dmsilev
@Elizabelle: There’s no law that says an ex-President has to live near their library… Bill Clinton’s library is in Arkansas, and he and Hillary live in New York.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
It would be weird for a presidential library to be built in a location with virtually no personal connection to that president. He was at Columbia for, what, four years max? Why not put it at Harvard?
gene108
I think Obama should have a few “libraries”..or rather some sort of learning centers for people push his legacy…
I’d dump one in Kansas, where his mother’s family is from, as a reminder to the racists he’s one generation removed from salt-of-the-earth Midwesterners.
I’d put another one in Chicago, as that is where he made his political bones.
I’d put one in Hawaii as that is where he grew up.
Tree With Water
@gene108: Come on, a little closer, you’re getting warm. What city is missing from your list? (hint: it’s not in North America).
aimai
I just hope they really have fun after leaving the white house.
Amir Khalid
@gene108:
Don’t forget one in Nairobi, just to mess with The Donald’s head.
ETA:
@Tree With Water: Did I guess right?
Elizabelle
@gogol’s wife: Very possibly.
I kind of wish they’d choose North Carolina. God knows that state needs some help. Plus, lot of natural beauty.
Mike J
Kenya.
Dammit, Amir beat me to it. I think it’s because he’s 15 hours ahead.
Tree With Water
@Amir Khalid: Just an annex, that’s all I’m asking. Heads would explode and I would be entertained
Mary G
Indonesia should also get a branch of the library, because that’s where he became a secrit moosellim, according to some of the wingnuts.
TaMara (BHF)
Well since it’s an open thread, I just need to say it’s been a sucky few days. I just don’t know how to handle taking a healthy cat to have a non-cancerous tumor removed (that was just under her skin) and having her die an hour after coming home from surgery.
Nothing in my years of being a pet person prepared me for this outcome. I feel horribly guilty. Her blood work, biopsy and lungs were clear. I know throwing a clot can happen…still…hard to accept. The surgery was less invasive than her spay.
Omnes Omnibus
Just put the thing in Mecca where it belongs.
KG
LA knows a little something about providing celebrities with anonymity.
geg6
@TaMara (BHF):
I am so sorry! How horrible for you.
Cervantes
@Tree With Water:
That’s where you’ll find the collections of most presidents before Hoover.
(I know, I know — once again you were going for a laugh you didn’t get!)
Tree With Water
@TaMara (BHF): I lost my 18 year old, little 5 pound feral cat not too long ago, and I was shattered the day she died. My sincere condolence.
Cervantes
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
Columbia: two years; Harvard: three.
And before those, Occidental: two.
Elizabelle
@TaMara (BHF): So sorry, TaMara. Sudden loss is the worst. My condolences.
srv
@Omnes Omnibus: Ack, how frightful – surely you know what Muslims think of worshipping idols and all that? Heck, they’re considering moviing Muhammad’s tomb and reburying him in an anonymous grave!
Presidential Libraries are like Olympics – it should just go to the highest bidder. Both Vegas and Dubai don’t have one, so they’d probably win.
Omnes Omnibus
@srv: I don’t see why you suggest that Obama was idle. I think his record clearly contradicts that notion.
Amir Khalid
@TaMara (BHF):
{{{Hugs}}} just because there are no words.
Omnes Omnibus
@TaMara (BHF): My condolences.
Baud
@TaMara (BHF):
That’s awful. I’m so sorry.
Baud
LGM had an interesting post up today about shenanigans with the Nixon Library.
Amir Khalid
@Omnes Omnibus:
Very inconvenient to visit. In the first place, the city is off limits to infidels; and even if you were a Muslim, you wouldn’t want to deal with the crowds during Haj week.
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
Have you done it?
srv
@Omnes Omnibus: He has dropped a lot of drone bombs. There’s a Grumman Avenger in HW’s Museum, and although W opted out of F-102 bravado at his, prehaps they can find a Predator for Obamas.
It’s too bad President McCain won’t get a library. Imagine that foyer.
Iowa Old Lady
@TaMara (BHF): I’m so sorry.
Doug r
@mai naem mobile: yeah I’m thinking Honolulu could use a good library
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Cervantes:
I almost added Occidental to the list. There’s a great pizza place nearby that the National Archives staff could lunch at, and we’d all be thrilled to have a third presidential library in Southern California. But it would be silly because, again, he has very little connection to the area. Illinois or Hawaii are much more logical places.
Omnes Omnibus
@srv: He’s piloting them himself? How very hands on.
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
The Haj? No. Given my health, particularly the bumness of my ticker, it’s not looking too likely either.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@TaMara (BHF):
I’m so sorry. I know it doesn’t help, but we can only do our best with the information we have at the time, so try not to beat yourself up too much.
Carol
@gene108: Best plan yet.
Larv
@srv:
It’d be cheaper, that’s for sure. No need to find quality planes or replicas, just scatter a few piles of wreckage about. But enough about his piloting abilities, did you know he was a POW?
Carol
@TaMara (BHF): So sorry to hear of your loss, TaMara.
Suzanne
@TaMara (BHF): Hugs. That is brutal. I’m so sorry.
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
I don’t know how much that means to you (and don’t feel like you have to volunteer that information), but I’m sorry to hear that.
sharl
@TaMara (BHF): Aw jeez, that’s awful. I’m so sorry. Farewell to Missy (2003-2015), who I’m sure appreciated her servant far more than is indicated by the judgmental shade she’s throwing at the camera.
Suzanne
I like putting it in Hawaii. NYC is great, but it would just be one of many attractions.
gogol's wife
@TaMara (BHF):
I’m sorry! That’s horrible.
WereBear
@TaMara (BHF): I’m so sorry. Of course you had no way of knowing. Or you wouldn’t have done it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne:
There would finally be a reason for people to visit Hawaii. Amirite?
Hal
There’s a part of me wishing Obama’s library would be an extension of a mosque in Kenya and it would be named the Donald Trump wing of the Barack Obama presidential library.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
Hawaii Five-O has taught me that Hawaii is a really dangerous place.
Hal
@Mike J: scrolling after posting. Same.
gogol's wife
@TaMara (BHF):
She was beautiful. I love black cats.
JPL
@TaMara (BHF): OH how sad. I hate that for you and there is a place on your lap that will never be the same. Missy looks like my son’s Mr. Alice. I’m not a cat person and I still miss that guy. I’m so sorry for your loss.
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
The old Hawaii Five-O, or the new one?
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
The new one, but mostly because I haven’t seen the old one in years.
PurpleGirl
@TaMara (BHF): Oh, how horrible. {{{lots and lots of Hugs}}}. At the shelter I follow, they were taking one hurt kitten for a leg amputation and ke died before the surgery could begin. (His leg was hurt and this was a last possible medical help for him.) They found a blood clot in his lungs. Very sad about Timmy, and it came after a few other kittens were lost.
Again {{{lots of Hugs}}}. They leave their paw prints all over our hearts.
Hildebrand
Needs to be in Chicago, housed on the Trinity United Church of Christ campus (please, please, please – just to watch folks like Hannity spontaneously combust on the tv machine).
Roger Moore
@Suzanne:
Honolulu is not entirely devoid of attractions, either.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Plus the criminals from the old one are retired by now.
rikyrah
@TaMara (BHF):
So sorry to hear about your pet.
PurpleGirl
@Amir Khalid:
…you wouldn’t want to deal with the crowds during Haj week.
I’d say that was an understatement of the highest order.
rikyrah
Being from Chicago, of course, I believe it should be in Chicago. I don’t even understand why NYC is under consideration. He went to Columbia for 2 years.
I do hope that the Obamas buy a house in Hawaii for them to spend part of the year in after his Presidency.
dmsilev
@Hal: Would you accept having Rahm Emmanuel eminent-domain the Trump tower here in Chicago for us as the Obama library? Much as I don’t like Rahm, I have to say, that would go a long way towards him redeeming himself in my yes.
msilaneous
@TaMara (BHF): So so sorry for your loss. My heart goes out to you.
dmsilev
By the way, if you’re looking for maximum wingnut trolling, among the actual bids you should be rooting for the University of Chicago’s. Greater Wingnuttia is already convinced that the University tore down a Reagan childhood home to put up a parking garage that will ultimately be for the benefit of the Obama library.
Why disappoint them?
(UofC did indeed tear down the apartment building in which Reagan lived for a few months when he was four, and they are indeed in the process of putting up a garage on the site. But, it’s for the hospital across the street, and the proposed library site is a mile or more away and would probably have its own on-site parking. Still, fun conspiracy!)
Mary G
@TaMara (BHF): That’s awful. Hugs and sympathy from me.
mai naem mobile
@TaMara (BHF): I’m so sorry. She looks like our late cat Casey with the same cattitude.
Heliopause
Jesus, talk about a first world problem. By the way, I’m debating whether to archive all my Balloon Juice comments in a library in Monaco or Playboy Mansion West. Kate Upton whispered in my ear for Monaco, I think, can’t be 100% sure because she was sucking my earlobe at the time.
fuckwit
There’s something delicious about putting it right up in Milton Friedman’s old home base.
He were going purely on hometown it should be in Honolulu.
If he were going on his political homeground it for sure would be Chicago; that’s where his career started in politics.
I don’t think it’s anyone’s business but wherever he puts it there will be a few jobs and some tourism/research dollars, so I guess it does matter.
Omnes Omnibus
@Heliopause: I am sorry. Please educate us on which wholesome, society improving topic we should be spending our time.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
All of them, Katie.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@TaMara (BHF): I’m so sorry to read that. They leave such big paw prints on our hearts.
JPL
According to the AJC, A specially called meeting of the House Judiciary Committee set for Monday was cancelled, leaving the future of the ‘religious liberty’ bill in doubt.
Although the GA discrimination bill was tabled last week the bigots scheduled a committee meeting for tomorrow, to try to reintroduce it. Now it appears that time will run out before they can reintroduce it.
I guess Pence did not do a good job today convincing folks it wasn’t about discrimination.
Heliopause
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’m enjoying talking about Kate Upton and my body parts, thank you very much.
raven
@TaMara (BHF): Oh I’m so sorry to hear this.
TaMara (BHF)
Thank you everyone. I’ve been down this road before, but this time, I just can’t breathe without the tears starting again. But you guys always make it better…
ThresherK
@TaMara (BHF): Hugs from our house to yours.
Zinsky
Just to make the right-wing Teabaggers heads spin, Obama should announce he is building his presidential library in Nairobi, Kenya and that it will open on Ramadan. A goat will be sacrificed at the opening ceremony with dog sandwiches for all in attendance. The Twitter would melt down after that shit hit the wires….
Cacti
@Zinsky:
I was just thinking that.
As a final troll to the teabaggers, put the Obama Presidential Library in Kenya.
Seriously though, I think it would be cool if he put it in Hawaii, as this may be the Aloha State’s only chance at hosting one.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I read a couple of years ago that Michelle Obama was done, finished, over Chicago winters, and was talking about settling permanently in VA.. In a very few years they’ll be empty nesters, so I think there will be some kind of Obama Institute for Politics at the U of Hawaii, wherever they vote and get their mail, but I’m hoping for the library in Chicago.
Amir Khalid
@Zinsky:
In Ramadhan, not on; it’s a month in the Muslim calendar, rather than a single day.
Tommy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’ve lived a lot of places. VA outside of Chicago minus the lake effect is the same an VA.
NotMax
Honolulu?
Yet another target for the Japanese?
/riff on teabaggery (Hey, they’re so fixated on WW2 – Chamberlain, Hitler, etc. that it’s but a tiny hop to drag out the ghosts of Yamamoto and Hirohito.)
MomSense
@aimai:
That’s my hope as well. Enjoy each other and the girls.
MomSense
@TaMara (BHF):
So sorry. She was a beauty.
pseudonymous in nc
@Cacti:
Outside America? For shame! (I kid.) Seriously, though, while it’d be a good location, it presents pretty big challenges for the archivists to ship all the physical material out there, even if an increasingly large amount of presidential records is digital.
(More importantly, hugs and good thoughts to TaMara.)
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Tommy: ?
Josie
@TaMara (BHF): So sorry for your loss. It is really hard when it is sudden like that.
NotMax
@pseudonymous in nc
Piece o’ cake. Truck the stuff to West Coast, load the trailers onto container ship(s), set sail.
Somewhere near 90% of the items imported into the state arrive via ship, so it’s a well-tested method.
WaterGirl
@TaMara (BHF): Oh, TaMara. There’s no way you could have known. She was here and fine and now she’s gone, and there’s no way to wrap your head around that, let alone your heart. You can’t make sense of it because it makes no sense.
I am so sorry. big hugs.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: You are back from college?
PurpleGirl
It occurs to me that cats/kittens have such small paws but the prints they leave are so big.
Suzanne
@Roger Moore: True, but Hawaii isn’t really known for its museums or libraries as much as its landscape and outdoor activities. NYC has a lot of that stuff already. Spread it around a bit.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@pseudonymous in nc:
I’m pretty sure the assigned archivists would be willing to take on the challenges if it meant spending the following winter in Honolulu instead of DC.
fuckwit
I did not know that scientists could mate with termites. What kind of scientists would try such a thing?
http://wonkette.com/581157/we-took-a-week-off-is-florida-still-dumb-yes-your-florida-roundup
MomSense
@WaterGirl:
It was a great day. I had a few tears right after I said goodbye and then a few when I came home but I’m really happy for him.
He’s in a single. I guess they shuffled things a bit so that two women are sharing a room and he is by himself.
It was a very long day though so I will try and sleep soon.
PurpleGirl
An article from the Columbia Spectator makes the briefest mention of the land for the library. According to the article, Columbia has the land from ‘acquisitions’ a number of years back. Of course, there probably was a land fight at the time the land was taken over. Harlem, the City and Columbia has had fights for years
WaterGirl
@MomSense: I’m glad it was a great day. You should be so proud of your kids, you have done such an amazing job with them.
You may be on a roller coaster for a bit, but maybe not. Time will tell. Big hugs to you and your youngest, if he is like I was with my sister when she went away to school, he will be sad. But the pup will keep you both busy, so there’s that!
Cervantes
@Amir Khalid:
Sorry to hear that.
catclub
@fuckwit: Luckily AntMan will probably be able to protect us (why exactly?) from the Scientist/Termite hybrid.
MomSense
@WaterGirl:
Thank you so much. A big part of getting a pup was because he would be adjusting to home without his brothers. We picked her up from the sitter and as soon as we got home my youngest and his puppy were cuddling on the couch.
satby
@TaMara (BHF): oh TaMara, that is terrible! So very sorry to hear that.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: You are one smart cookie! Yay for puppy love.
satby
@Tree With Water: aww Tree, that’s too bad too. She lived a long time for a feral though, you were doing something really right by her!
SuperHrefna
@TaMara (BHF): I’m so very, very sorry. Hugs.
SWMBO
@TaMara (BHF): There are no words. Big hugs and sympathy tears.
VFX Lurker
@TaMara (BHF): {{hugs}}
phoebes-in-santa fe
@TaMara (BHF): Words can’t express the sorrow of losing a beloved pet, but I’m so sorry.