Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Obama returns to public stage in Chicago event
WASHINGTON — Former President Barack Obama returns to the public stage Monday morning in a homecoming to the University of Chicago, an event that stands to serve as a warmup for more visibility in the coming weeks.
Obama has kept a low profile in the three months following his departure from the White House. But he arrived in Chicago on Sunday for his first major visit to the city since he gave his farewell speech on Jan. 10. Monday’s event comes as President Donald Trump’s administration rolls out its own 100-day narrative, with Saturday marking that milestone since the presidency changed hands.
The discussion with six students is billed as a “Conversation on Civic Engagement” and will be followed by a handful of national and international events.
Obama is to receive a John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in Boston on May 7. Then he flies to Milan for the Global Innovation Food Summit. In Italy, he’ll be with Sam Kass, a good friend and former personal chef both in Chicago and the White House. On May 25, Obama is slated to appear in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. His memoirs are a work in progress too.
“He always thinking about” his book, Obama spokesman Kevin Lewis said.
Nowadays, the former president has a staff of 20 and an office not far from the White House. Aides handle a deluge of mail and invitations, Lewis said. Friend and former White House adviser Valerie Jarrett has an office in the same building. He is set to make paid, closed-to-thepublic speeches here and abroad arranged by the Harry Walker Agency, Lewis said.
And former first lady Michelle Obama is set to elevate her profile soon, planning a speech in D.C. on May 12 at an anti-obesity summit hosted by the Partnership for a Healthier America.
In Chicago on Sunday, Obama met privately with at-risk young men to talk about gang violence, jobs skills and employment, Lewis said. At his Monday appearance,
Obama will not give a formal speech. He plans to make opening remarks and moderate a discussion with young people about civic engagement and community organizing.
If the weeks past are prologue, chances appear slim that Obama will launch an all-out attack on Trump on Monday. But Obama might not be shy about stating differences on policy such as climate change and immigration, especially when trying to pass the political baton to young people. “He sees young people as vital to craft real progressive change,” Lewis said.
Trump’s pugilistic style is in contrast to Obama’s. The former constitutional law professor has said little about the new president’s criticisms and accusations so far.
Ex-presidents tend to keep quiet about their successors to let them establish themselves and make their own mistakes, but there’s no ironclad tradition of staying at arm’s length, Princeton University presidential historian Julian Zelizer said. Democrats Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton criticized Republican George W. Bush over the Iraq War, for example, he said.
Zelizer predicts that as the public sees more and more of Obama, Trump will continue his condemnations.
Trump launched his political career in part by falsely accusing the Democrat of being born overseas and has “made a career of attacking Obama, his antithesis in policy and personality,” Zelizer said.