good, smart people who were ready to help. Who was I to stop him? How could
I put my own needs, and even those of our girls, in front of the possibility that
Barack could be the kind of president who helped make life better for millions of
people?
I said yes because I loved him and had faith in what he could do.
I said yes, though I was at the same time harboring a painful thought, one I
wasn’t ready to share: I supported him in campaigning, but I also felt certain he
wouldn’t make it all the way. He spoke so often and so passionately of healing
our country’s divisions, appealing to a set of higher ideals he believed were innate
in most people. But I’d seen enough of the divisions to temper my own hopes.
Barack was a black man in America, after all. I didn’t really think he could win.