Early ALS as president, one page, 6.5 x 4.25, White House letterhead, no date [circa early 2009]. Handwritten letter to Michael P. Powers, who had written to President Obama on the day of the latter's inauguration, January 20, 2009, which reads: “Thanks so much for the wonderful letter, and the good advice. I am returning the picture, since it must be important to you, but I will remember your dad’s memory.” In very fine condition. Accompanied by the original White House transmittal envelope and a softcover copy of Jeanne Marie Laskas’ To Obama: With Love, Joy, Anger, and Hope, which contains samples of correspondence between Obama and American citizens during the eight years of his presidency. This offered letter, as well as the original typed letter from Powers, are printed in the book on pages 36 and 37.
The Powers letter reads, in part (spelling retained): ‘Hello, my name is Michael P. Powers...Enclosed is a picture of my father, and I have carried it for almost 30 years now...His name was Benjamin Maurice Powers Sr...Now the reason I have sent you this picture of my father, (You may keep it if you like), is that he smoked 3 packs of cigarettes a day, and on August 21, 1979 at the age of 50 he died from smoking 3 packs a day...I was 25 years old at the time...I remember watching you on TV in Grant Park when you won, as you walked out I heard one of your daughters almost scream, ‘Hi Daddy’ and at that moment I missed my father more than I think I ever have...He was and always will be my best friend... If you always want to be there for your girls, than stop smoking NOW! Someday they are going to need you for something, (we all do need our parents for something at sometime or another), and I want you to be there for them, and also I think The United States, and the World need you now more than ever, and I want you to be there for all of us.’
The blurb on the back cover of Laskas’ book: ‘Every evening for eight years, at his request, President Obama was given ten handpicked letters written by ordinary American citizens—the unfiltered voice of a nation—from his Office of Presidential Correspondence. He was the first president to interact daily with constituent mail and to archive it in its entirety. The letters affected not only the president and his policies but also the deeply committed people who were tasked with opening and reading the millions of pleas, rants, thank-yous, and apologies that landed in the White House mailroom.'
Obama’s 2020 memoir A Promised Land reveals how the stress of the White House led to a few bad tendencies, including smoking, noting that he would sometimes smoke up to 10 cigarettes a day and often look for a ‘discreet location to grab an evening smoke.’ He said he quit smoking by ‘ceaselessly’ chewing nicotine gum after his daughter Malia ‘frowned’ after ‘smelling a cigarette on my breath.’ Obama purportedly broke the habit in 2011.
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