'The Bridge': 6 revelations from the new Obama bio
The New Yorker's David Remnick uncovers new details about the famously opaque president in his account of Barack Obama's life

The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama, a new biography by The New Yorker's editor David Remnick, will "surely go down as the definitive account of the making of the 44th President," says Newsweek. Tracing Obama's history from his rootless Hawaii youth to the White House, Remnick has gone into Obama's life in greater depth than ever before. (Watch David Remnick discuss his new book.) While The New York Post's Ginger Adams Otis faults the book for failing to unearth "particularly gripping insider info" that would "break apart the carefully assembled image Obama has created of himself," other analysts have noted several revelations in Remnick's account:
1. Obama's mother may be shrewder and more practical than he's implied
While Obama' book Dreams of My Father depicts his mother, Stanley Ann Durham, as a "naive... racial dreamer," notes Joan Walsh in Salon, Remnick's more objective picture makes Obama's account seem like "the product of the adolescent tendency to find parents inadequate and annoying." According to The Bridge, Dunham felt her son's book portrayed her as being more naive about race than she was. In Remnick's take, Dunham "comes alive as a smart, stubborn idealist" and "a devoted but also practical globalist."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
2. Obama's socialist father was apparently violent
The president's "goat herder" Kenyan father "comes off better and worse" here, says Walsh, than in Obama's autobiography. On the one hand, Obama, Sr. is revealed as an "impressive intellect" and an unapologetic socialist thinker admired by Kenyan intellectuals. On the other, it seems he was a "worse husband and father than even his critical son showed him to be." Remnick alleges that Obama, Sr. beat at least one of his wives, and took "no apparent joy" from any of his children. The "drive to escape the fate of his father, professionally and personally" may be a key factor in "molding the future president," says Walsh.
3. As a college student, Obama wanted life to "be more difficult"
Obama transferred from Los Angeles's Occidental College to New York's Columbia University, according to his erstwhile roommate Phil Boerner, who's quoted in the book, because: “we [Boerner and Obama] felt like we were in a groove and we wanted life to be more difficult…Obama used to tell his friends that he wanted to go somewhere where the weather was cold and miserable so that he would be forced to spend his days indoors reading.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
4. He got his wish
At Columbia, Obama lived at 142 W 109th St and Amsterdam, where he paid a paltry monthly rent of $360. "The apartment's charms," writes Remnick, "included spotty heat, irregular hot water, and a railroad-flat layout." During winter, Obama and his roommate would shower at the Columbia gym and warm up in the library.
5. Obama deliberately mastered "bilingualism" to sound less "Ivy League"
Obama's unsuccessful challenge in 2000 for Rep. Bobby Rush's Congress seat taught him much about his "blackness," says Salon's Walsh. Accused of being a "Ivy League puppet" for "moneyed white liberals" by Chicagoan supporters of former Black Panther Rush, Obama was "trounced" in the election. As a result, he dropped what Remnick calls his "twenty-five cent words" and became "bilingual" — able to "sound like a preacher, or at least a brother," as well as an "an impressive Ivy Leaguer."
6. He is a cagey, cautious poker player
Despite the president's high stakes bet on healthcare reform, Remnick reveals that the young Obama was a "cautious" poker player in a weekly dollar ante game with fellow state senators, says Newsweek. He folded "hand after hand, waiting for his moment to bluff or go big on a good hand." One exasperated Republican, Bill Brady, told Obama, "you're a socialist with everybody's money but your own."
-
Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning: an 'awe-inspiringly bananas' conclusion
The Week Recommends Tom Cruise undertakes 'death-defying' stunt set pieces in this 'dazzlingly ambitious' finale
-
Could medics' misgivings spell the end of the assisted dying bill?
Today's Big Question The Royal College of Psychiatrists has identified 'serious concerns' with the landmark bill – and MPs are taking notice
-
The Chelsea Townhouse: London luxury feels right at home
The Week Recommends This boutique hotel strikes the right note between sophisticated and cosy
-
The JFK files: the truth at last?
In The Spotlight More than 64,000 previously classified documents relating the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy have been released by the Trump administration
-
'Seriously, not literally': how should the world take Donald Trump?
Today's big question White House rhetoric and reality look likely to become increasingly blurred
-
Will Trump's 'madman' strategy pay off?
Today's Big Question Incoming US president likes to seem unpredictable but, this time round, world leaders could be wise to his playbook
-
Democrats vs. Republicans: who are the billionaires backing?
The Explainer Younger tech titans join 'boys' club throwing money and support' behind President Trump, while older plutocrats quietly rebuke new administration
-
US election: where things stand with one week to go
The Explainer Harris' lead in the polls has been narrowing in Trump's favour, but her campaign remains 'cautiously optimistic'
-
Is Trump okay?
Today's Big Question Former president's mental fitness and alleged cognitive decline firmly back in the spotlight after 'bizarre' town hall event
-
The life and times of Kamala Harris
The Explainer The vice-president is narrowly leading the race to become the next US president. How did she get to where she is now?
-
Will 'weirdly civil' VP debate move dial in US election?
Today's Big Question 'Diametrically opposed' candidates showed 'a lot of commonality' on some issues, but offered competing visions for America's future and democracy