Vanity, ego and Biden: Barack Obama is at his candid best ahead of book launch

Former US president Barack Obama would not take a position in Democrat Joe Biden’s cabinet -- because if he did, he fears, his wife would leave him.

The 44th US president made the remark in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, two days ahead of publication of his memoir, A Promised Land.

The publication of Obama's new memoir, A Promised Land, which covers the events of his eight years in the White House coincides with his interview with Oprah Winfrey -- two short clips from which have been released.

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Biden, Obama’s vice-president from 2009 to 2017, was declared as the president-elect by the US media networks while incumbent president Donald Trump continues to refuse to concede defeat in the November 3 vote.

Biden would become the 46th US president in January, 2021.

Asked how he will help Biden, Obama said: “He doesn’t need my advice, and I will help him in any ways that I can. Now, I’m not planning to suddenly work on the White House staff or something.”

Obama elaborated on his reaction to Biden and future vice-president Kamala Harris's victory, and what it means for the future of the country. "I was thrilled," he told Oprah.

"Joe is somebody who stood by me on every major decision I had for eight years. He's become a brother and a genuinely good friend. Kamala was one of my earliest supporters when I first launched my presidency. I'm personally invested in them. They have the character and experience to do an outstanding job in a very difficult, very challenging time in this country," Obama continued.

The 44th president also expressed his hope that Biden and Harris's election would usher in the restoration of a different, less incendiary tone of politics in the US.

Asked if he would consider a cabinet position, Obama said: “There are some things I would not be doing because Michelle would leave me. She’d be like, what? You’re doing what?”

In a released clip from the conversation with Oprah Winfrey, Obama said he and Michelle “went through our rough patches in the White House, as she’s written about, she’s talked about. But I tell you that the thing that I think we were good about was talking stuff through, never losing fundamental love and respect for each other, and prioritising our kids.”

On CBS, Obama discussed what it is like to have the luxurious trappings of office.

“I’m driving along,” Obama said, laughing. “I’m still not driving, but [I’m] in the car. I’m in the car in the backseat and I’m looking at my iPad or something. And suddenly, we stop and I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’ There’s a red light. There’s a car right next to us. Some kids are eating a burrito or something in the backseat.

“Back to life.”

Talking of the memoir, Obama considers what his meteoric rise to the US Senate and then the White House meant for his marriage to Michelle and family life with their daughters, Sasha and Malia.

“My career in politics, with its prolonged absences, had made it even tougher” for his wife to pursue her own law career, he writes. “More than once Michelle had decided not to pursue an opportunity that excited her but would have demanded too much time away from the girls.

“… With my election [as president] she’d been forced to give up a job with real impact for a role [as first lady] that – in its original design, at least – was far too small for her gifts.”

In aclip about vanity and ego, Obama says that understanding the work is not about yourself. In another,Obama shares that the Sandy Hook shooting was the hardest day of his presidency and expresses disappointment that there was no policy change following the tragedy.

A Promised Land is part of a reported $65m deal with Penguin Random House that also covered Becoming, Michelle Obama’s memoir, released in 2018, and which has sold more than 10 million copies.

Barack Obama's interview on 'The Oprah Conversation' will be free to watch on Apple TV+ through December 1, and available for subscribers afterwards.

(with inputs)