In an interview that aired October 1st,
presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D.- Illinois) talked to Tyra
Banks on her daytime talk show The Tyra Show about everything from
politics to his family life to - what else? - Paris Hilton.
Tyra, seemingly nervous at first, warmed up to
Barack and whipped out a copy of The Audacity of Hope.
"You know, I read both of your books," Tyra said. "I read
Dreams of My Father, and I read The Audacity of
Hope...cover to cover. Co-ver to
co-ver." (Gee whiz, reading a
book cover to cover is unheard of.) She pulled an excellent quote
from it, though, and read it aloud:
"It sometimes appears that Americans today
value nothing so much as being rich, thin, young, famous, safe, and
entertained."
She then
asks him a question about how he raises his two
girls in the "young Hollywood" climate. Barack responds, "You know,
the nice thing is, my older one - my nine-year-old, Malia - she's very
down on Paris Hilton and all that. In fact, when she finds out
that we're staying at a hotel, she asks, 'this isn't a Hilton hotel, is
it?' She's not big on that whole scene...but you know, so much
of this stuff starts at home...I think that if we had more parenting, the
kinds of influences that we see on the television don't matter as
much." GO MALIA!
Here's
the video clip of Barack talking family matters with Tyra (and
we love you, Tyra, but hush up and let him talk!):