One little remarked point are the similarities in the roles of Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton in the rise to power of their husbands: they were both skilled operatives instrumental in building their husbands’ political machines. Obama, for example, placed Michelle in the 1990s in charge of a headhunter’s group for social charities in Chicago, allowing her seed hundreds of Barack Obama loyalists throughout Chicago NGOs. Interestingly, Barack has seldom over-praised his wife’s contributions the way Bill Clinton did so slavishly. Barack likes to play up Michelle as wife-and mother rather than as political cadre.

Obama’s never shown much respect for feminism. His appreciation of his grandmother, a pioneering woman banking executive in Hawaii, is rather faint.