Obama hardly first candidate to beat odds

The election of our first African-American president has been called an unprecedented change, a historic event, something unthinkable 10, 20 or 30 years ago. The postelection issue of Time magazine described Barack Obama’s election this way:

“That achievement, compared with those of the Bushes or the Kennedys or the Roosevelts or the Adamses or any of the other American princes who were born into power or bred to it, represents such a radical departure from the norm that it finally brings meaning to the promise taught from kindergarten: ‘anyone can grow up to be President.’ “

The kindergarten teacher was right, and Time is wrong. If you can put aside one-half of Obama’s racial makeup, he fits easily into a well-established lineage for American presidents and is not “a radical departure from the norm.”

In some very important ways, President-elect Obama fits into a line of men from unprivileged, even underprivileged, backgrounds who have become president. The media has largely ignored the similarities and given almost total emphasis to the racial difference between Obama and his predecessors. In my view, the change from an elite-background president to one from modest beginnings is not so much a departure from the norm as it is a return to the norm.

Since 1932, we have elected four presidents from privileged, elite backgrounds: both Bushes, Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt. Our other eight presidents since that time and President-elect Obama have all come from decidedly unprivileged, non-elite backgrounds. They did not come from Hyde Park, Boston or Kennebunkport. Instead, they came from Independence, Abilene, Johnson City, Yorba Linda, Grand Rapids, Plains, Dixon, Hope and now Honolulu.

Their family breadwinners were typical working people. Harry Truman’s and Jimmy Carter’s fathers were farmers; indeed, Truman’s father worked at times as a mule trader. Other parental jobs included mechanic in a creamery (Eisenhower), salesman (Reagan), grocer (Nixon) and head of a paint and varnish store (Ford).

Although their educations had modest beginnings, five ended up at elite institutions. President Truman’s education ended with high school. Lyndon Johnson painted garages for 40 cents an hour to help pay his way to Southwest Texas State Teachers College. Presidents Nixon and Reagan graduated from small colleges (Whittier and Eureka). As for elite institutions, Eisenhower, after working for a year after high school at the creamery in Abilene, won a competitive exam to attend West Point. Others followed a similar path: Carter to the Naval Academy, Clinton and Ford to Yale Law School, Nixon to Duke Law School, and Obama to Harvard Law School.

None of the five had those privileged educations handed to them as a matter of birthright. In contrast, the father of each President Bush went to Yale, where both Bush presidents went to college. President Roosevelt and President Kennedy’s fathers graduated from Harvard, as did their president sons.

Not all came from nuclear families. Ford’s parents separated 16 days after he was born. According to Ford, his father had a history of hitting his mother. He took his stepfather’s surname, and did not know about his biological father until he was 17. President Clinton’s father died before he was born. His namesake stepfather was an abusive carouser, and Clinton was raised mostly by his mother, a nurse.

Our newest president is part and parcel of these driven strivers who have led our country. Barack Obama’s father left the family when Obama was a toddler. His mother raised him for a few years and then turned him over to his grandparents, one of whom worked in a furniture store, the other in a bank. They gave him and his half-sister a loving home in a 900-square-foot apartment in a modest section of Honolulu — a home about the same size as the Reagan family apartment above the H.C. Pitney Variety Store in Tampico, Ill. Obama rose to an elite education (Punahou, Columbia, Harvard) through his own efforts.

Because of race, President-elect Obama is not the same as the Unprivileged Eight. But he and we should take pride in knowing he fits well into our lineage of men from humble, even underprivileged, backgrounds who have become American presidents.

On election night, Obama said, “if there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible … tonight is your answer.” And the answer is, this isn’t as much of a change as it first appears.

• Robert Miller, a retired lawyer, lives in Atlanta and is an adjunct professor of law at Emory University.