Barack Obama reveals the most badass thing about Michelle and his daughters

Barack Obama’s anticipated memoir A Promised Land dropped this week, so naturally the former U.S. president has been making his rounds and chatting up the big debut. In one such interview and in the book though, he also took some time to reflect on all the influential women in his life.In a chat with InStyle Obama was asked what the most badass thing about his wife Michelle and his daughters Malia and Sasha was, and he had answers for each of them. “They all have multiple badass qualities,” he began. “I think people know Michelle well enough to know how amazing she can be as a public speaker. They probably are less aware of what it’s like to work out with Michelle when she’s really in her groove. And sometimes that includes her boxing. You don’t want to get in the way when she’s working on a bag—including some kicks. There’s force there.”On the subject of his daughters, Obama had equally thoughtful answers about what makes each of them badass. He referred to Sasha’s confidence and Malia’s joie de vivre as admirable qualities, proving he is every bit the proud papa. “Sasha is, as Malia describes it, completely confident about her own take on the world and is not cowed or intimidated—and never has been—by anybody’s titles, anybody’s credentials. If she thinks something’s wrong or right, she will say so,” Obama said. “And Malia, she is just buoyant. She’s somebody who enjoys people, enjoys life, and enjoys conversation. She’s never bored, which is a badass quality that can take you places.”The publication also shared an excerpt from the novel, in which Obama discussed growing up in a non-political family and shared his observations about his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham. He described her as a rebellious woman with strong moral convictions, who like his grandparents was “suspicious of platforms, doctrines, absolutes, preferring to express her values on a smaller canvas.” He went on to describe how she spent most of her life in Southeast Asia (Indonesia) helping people in poverty and how she was “appalled” by racism and married twice to men “outside of” her race.“Incensed by societal constraints put upon women, she’d divorce both men when they proved overbearing or disappointing, carving out a career of her own choosing, raising her kids according to her own standards of decency, and pretty much doing whatever she damn well pleased,” he wrote.A Promised Land is Obama’s fourth novel, and already it is off to record-breaking sales. Within the first 24 hours of its November 17 release it sold nearly 890,000 copies in the U.S. and Canada, which means it is on track to becoming the bestselling presidential memoir of all time. To compare, Michelle Obama’s memoir, Becoming, sold 725,000 copies in North America on its first day back in 2018, and it has now sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.[video_embed id='2078777']BEFORE YOU GO: Quebec considers small holiday gatherings[/video_embed]