The New York Times profile of Obama's mom: 6 takeaways

The Times' Sunday magazine runs a long excerpt from Janny Scott's upcoming book on the First Mother

The president in Chicago in the early 1980s: In a lengthy New York Times Magazine profile, Janny Scott delves into the lives of Obama and his mother in Indonesia in the late 1960s.
(Image credit: Facebook/ Barack Obama)

The New York Times Magazine has published a 6,000-word profile of President Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, the woman he calls "the single constant" in his life. It's an excerpt from reporter Janny Scott's upcoming book, A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother. Scott spent more than two years, and nearly 200 interviews, compiling information about the woman who, Scott says, is often portrayed as a "corn-fed, white-bread" Kansan. But the magazine story focuses mostly on Dunham's experiences, and Obama's upbringing, in Indonesia. In 1967, at age 24, Dunham followed her second husband to Jakarta, and she brought 6-year-old Barack with her. The four years that followed were "formative" for both mother and son, Scott writes. Here, six key takeaways:

1. Obama wanted to be prime minister... of Indonesia

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