Even before he moves into the White House, the new President is feeling hemmed in and planning to do something about it.
Asked by Chicago reporters about his face painted on sides of buildings and lamp posts, Barack Obama complained that “because I’m in this bubble, I don’t get to see all this stuff…I don’t get a chance to wander around neighborhoods,” saying that he missed encounters like the one on Thanksgiving handing out food at a local church.
But the President-Elect is resisting being cut off: “(M)y Kennebunkport is on the South Side of Chicago. We own one piece of property, and that is our home in Chicago…10 minutes away from where Michelle grew up and where her mother still has a house…we’re going to try to get back here at least once every six weeks or couple months.”
At the beginning of his campaign two years ago, Obama expressed worries about staying grounded in the face of all the hype, and he apparently still has those concerns.