A president’s children live under the focus of the nation. The curiosity they inspire is natural. When anyone runs for elected office the American people have traditionally wanted to see their family, and know something about the private life of the person who is running. Especially in the case of the president, there is a desire to see who the people are that might represent the nation as America’s First Family. On the night, Barack Obama took the stage to make his first speech as the President Elect he stood with his family, and he must have realized that not only was he making history, but so were the two beautiful little girls who stood with him.
Some First Families have lived quietly in the White House attracting little attention. Others immediately caught national notice. The children of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt for example entered the White House amid a flurry of press reports about all of their personalities and endeavors. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Franklin’s son James Roosevelt requested assignment to combat duty, and was transferred to the Marine Raiders and eventually earned the Navy Cross. His story was much the same as many young men at the time, and his service to the country was watched by a nation that needed to know theirs was not the only family willing to sacrifice, and to take risks to defend the nation.
This is what Americans seem to desire from the children of the President. Young people or children who can be admired, and held up as examples of what children in the United States ought to represent. In the daughters of President Obama, the nation has certainly found that quality.
barack-obamas-children
Barack Obama met Michelle Robinson in June 1989. She declined his initial requests to go out on a date, as she was at that time his adviser at the firm of Sidley Austin. Later in the summer however, she did accept his invitation and the pair became engaged in 1991. After six years of marriage, the couple’s first child Malia Ann was born on July 4, 1998. Their first little girl was followed by a second daughter Natasha on June 10, 2001, and nicknamed Sasha.
President Obama’s daughters made one thing clear on the night he was elected President. They wanted their father to hold to his promise of getting a puppy. Senator Ted Kennedy made sure this was a presidential promise that would not be vetoed and gifted the family with a Portuguese Water Dog the First Girls named Bo.
Both daughters have impressed the people of the United States with their poise and charm. Young Sasha who at 9 years of age is learning Chinese in school was given the chance to practice phrases in that language with Hu Jintao the Chinese president during a White House state dinner in January of 2011. Not every child is given the chance to practice a new language with a visiting President, but then not every child lives under the immense scrutiny these two little girls face every day.