>Tc,
>
>Certainly they both gravitated towards public service rather than personal enrichment- though Obama's books continue to do well, raising the Obama family income to >$4M in 2007 and 2008. I'd suspect that their ongoing monetary success is greater than just about anybody on UT, meaning that it is unlikely that they would be hateful of success. This couple did everything right to succeed and they made it to the most powerful office in the free world.

I'm sorry - I think you misunderstood the purpose of my message. I wasn't (and don't believe) stating that either of the Obama's were hateful or envious of success. Not at all. I was only replying to your comment on their 'choice to forego the income they could receive' and chose to pursue more altruistic (sacrifice) career choices.

Just in case you didn't know:

declared his goal of becoming president when he was in grade school in Indonesia more than 35 years ago. In an interview with VOA's Indonesian Service, Obama's third-grade teacher said he wrote in a class assignment that he wanted to be president. The assignment was called, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2007-01/2007-01-31-voa32.cfm

Now, that could be the dream of every little boy, and it may be that he truly wants what is best for this country (his idea of best as is the case with all presidents) and just happened to be the one who followed that goal. It could simply be a case of wanting to serve this country in a civilian capacity. There is no denying though that every choice he made was made in order to reach that goal.