Although he has almost two years remaining until he leaves office, President Barack Obama is openly — and sometimes publicly — considering his post-presidency career options.
"I was thinking you and me, we could play some dominoes together. We can go to the local Starbucks and swap stories," joked Obama, who will be 55 when his successor is sworn in, during a Monday appearance on CBS' "The Late Show with David Letterman."
Or, as he told Letterman during the commercial break, he could take a month off once he leaves the White House.
Watch the video below.
While Obama clearly has enjoyed appearing on television talk shows, the former law professor and community organizer knows that with two girls heading off to college in the next few years, it is never too early to plan.
In recent weeks, Obama has hinted at several options, including returning to his roots as a community organizer.
"But I'll be done being president in a couple of years, and I'll still be a pretty young man — not compared to you guys, but I'll still be pretty young.
"And so I'll go back to doing the kinds of work that I was doing before, just trying to find ways to help people — help young people get educations, and help people get jobs, and try to bring businesses into neighborhoods that don't have enough businesses," he said last week during a
webinar with middle school students in Washington, D.C.
"That's the kind of work that I really love to do," he said.
In the wake of the Baltimore riots, Obama signaled he may want to focus on race and economic inequality during an event to launch a new nonprofit organization that will build on My Brother’s Keeper, a White House initiative launched in response to the 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin. Its goal is to develop opportunities for young minority men.
"This will remain a mission for me and for Michelle not just for the rest of my presidency but for the rest of my life,” he said Monday in remarks to an audience in the Bronx, according to
The New York Times.
The nonprofit, My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, already has secured more than $300 million in commitments from businesses and other donors, and is said to be similar to the Clinton Global Initiative, reports
The Washington Post.
John Rogers, the founder of Ariel Capital Management and a friend from Obama's time in Chicago, believes the Alliance is suited to the passion shared by the president and first lady.
"This initiative fits perfectly with how they were living their lives before they moved to Washington. He has this passion about African-Americans participating fully," Rogers told
The Daily Beast.
Although he and political observers have talked openly about what lies ahead after the White House, Obama cannot afford to leave the impression his main focus is not his current job.
"People at this point expect the president to pay attention to international events and keep his pulse on domestic problems. He can’t devote too much time to this; he needs to show people he is still on the job. But at the same time, he needs to start thinking about what his legacy is," Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston who studies the presidency, told
The Hill.
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