Obama May Be First Since Woodrow Wilson to Spend Post-Presidency in Washington D.C.

In a wide-ranging interview with ABC News’ Barbara Walters, President Barack Obama indicated that he will not be leaving Washington D.C. when he leaves the White House in January, 2017. Obama would become the first president since Woodrow Wilson to spend the post-presidency in Washington D.C., a move that some experts say is a bad idea.

Obama told Walters that it would be hard on his family to leave Washington when his two terms in office are completed because his youngest child, Sasha Obama, will still be in high school at the time.

“We gotta make sure that she’s doing well,” Obama said, “until she goes off to college.”

“Sasha will have a big say in where we are,” Obama continued.

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A dying President Wilson was the last former president to spend his post-presidency in the capital. Brookings Institution presidential scholar Stephen Hess told the Washington Post that this would be a bad idea.

“Once you’re in Washington you are somehow connected to every problem that your predecessor is going to be confronting,” Hess said. “And you will be asked to say something each time your name comes up, given that you will have reporters camping out on your doorstep.”

h/t Washington Post

[Photo via screen grab ]

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