President Barack Obama’s 8-year term as POTUS is almost up. In November, registered voters will decide whether they’d rather Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump lead America forward, and Obama will retire from the Oval into what will probably be the most scrutinized White House afterlife in this nation’s history.
Reporters, journalists and bloggers have already begun obsessing over what Obama’s life as a regular citizen will be like. His new home has already been discovered, Malia and Sasha Obama’s high school and college plans have already been revealed, and people have wasted no time making suggestions about what his next job should be. (Many have called for NFL Commissioner Barack Obama, which is a brilliant idea for a myriad of reasons.) However, the POTUS himself has other ideas, and they don’t involve running the most powerful league in sports, or running to be Chicago’s next mayor (that’s also been suggested by scores of people). The man that’s led the free world for most of the last decade would like to sell t-shirts in his favorite vacation spot. That’s about it.
New York Times writer Michael D. Shears penned a feature on the solitary hours the Commander-in-Chief logs at the culmination of a work day, solitary hours that have defined his presidency since his 2008 inauguration. In it, he described a time when Obama and Rahim Emanuel, Obama’s former personal aide, dreamed of opening a t-shirt shop in Hawaii that only sold medium, white t-shirts.
The idea behind those inflexible specs? No more decision making. Can you blame him? You can read the full NYT feature here.
