'There was a joke he'd be president'
OBAMA'S HALF-SISTER VISITS | Sees his new celeb status
No, Barack Obama has not been planning a run for the White House since childhood, his half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, said at a rally-the-troops appearance at Obama's Chicago headquarters Monday.
"I think there was a joke he would be president someday because he was so self-assured and would win so many arguments," Soetoro-Ng said of her big brother. "But there's a big difference between a childhood story being passed around while playing Scrabble on the floor and real plans."
(Tom Cruze/Sun-Times)
Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign said Monday Obama wrote a childhood essay on wanting to be president, criticizing him for saying he hadn't planned a White House run years ago.
His sister said before he made the decision to run a year ago, he took long walks with her on the beach in Hawaii where they scattered their mother's ashes, and he sought her counsel and talked with other relatives, too.
She said his candidacy has lit a fire of interest in the high school history students she teaches in Hawaii (Soetoro-Ng pronounces it "Ha-WAH'-ee"). The first time she saw that enthusiasm was when she was here for Halloween, she said.
"Barack was taking the girls out, as he does every Halloween," she said. "This was the first year he had to wear the mask. A gaggle of young people passed us ... they said, 'Did you see that? That was Barack Obama!' They turned around and chased him to get an autograph -- and these are like 16-year-olds."