President Obama offered a preview Thursday of his life away from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Apparently, it involves plenty of drinks with umbrellas in them.
“I’ll do some island hopping once I’m out of office,” Obama said at a town hall in Jamaica Thursday in response to a questioner who wondered if he would visit the Turks and Caicos.
Obama stopped in Jamaica Thursday in advance of his trip to Panama for the Summit of the Americas, where his normalizing of relations with Cuba is expected to be the focus of talks.
The president’s stop in Jamaica has been decidedly lighter.
Immediately after arriving in the island nation, Obama visited the Bob Marley Museum.
Questions at the town hall for young leaders Thursday centered on how Obama handles the stresses of his job and what he would do if he could go back in time.
“I try not to get too high when things are going well so I don’t get too low when things are going badly,” Obama said of his personal temperament.
With the benefit of a time machine, the president said he would have “started dying my hair earlier.”
Obama then went on to say that he could have done a better job explaining to the American public how difficult it would be to emerge from the Great Recession.
When asked about the possible legalization of marijuana, Obama also reiterated his position that the U.S. justice system was too focused on jailing nonviolent offenders.
“I do not foresee anytime soon Congress changing the law at a national basis,” the president said. However, Obama said that if more states legalize the drug, some lawmakers could change their calculus.
