Barack Obama to Michael Lewis on a Presidential Loss of Freedom: “You Don’t Get Used to It—At Least, I Don’t”

By Vanity Fair

“Don’t be looking to the sidelines all sheepish,” Barack Obama yells at Vanity Fair contributing editor Michael Lewis in “Obama’s Way,” in October’s V.F. “You got to get back and play D!” When you’re on the president’s basketball team, Lewis learns, and you take a stupid shot, the president of the United States screams at you. When Lewis gets benched, he notices that no one goes easy on No. 44 (Obama’s number in the line of U.S. presidents, also emblazoned on his high-tops). “If you take it easy on him, you’re not invited back,” explains one of the players for the other team, a former Florida State point guard. (Everyone on the court played basketball in college, and some even played pro overseas.)

“Assume that in 30 minutes you will stop being president. I will take your place. Prepare me. Teach me how to be president,” Lewis, who interviewed President Obama multiple times over six months—on Air Force One, in the Oval Office, and on the basketball court—asks. Obama explains that every president is deeply aware of his duty to the American people. “Everything you are doing has to be viewed through this prism,” he says. “I don’t know George Bush well. I know Bill Clinton better. But I think they both approached the job in that spirit.”

Obama also covers the mundane details of presidential existence. “You have to exercise,” he says, “or at some point you’ll just break down.” At play, the president wears red-white-and-blue Under Armor high-tops, but at work it’s strictly blue or gray suits. “I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make,” he tells Lewis. “You need to focus your decision-making energy. You need to routinize yourself. You can’t be going through the day distracted by trivia.” Lewis says that if he were president he might keep a list in his head. “I do,” Obama adds. “That’s my last piece of advice to you. Keep a list.”

(More here.)