Obama Praises His Mother at Nobel Dinner

I don't say this too often, but Obama is an awesome president, certainly one of the hardest working.
He makes the absolute best of everything in the face of fierce, and sometimes highly irrational, critics.
Obama, in a softer tone, pays tribute to the civil rights movement, Alfred Nobel and his mother.

Obama's Mother's Dissertation Published: Surviving Against the Odds

Obama's sister Maya Soetoro-Ng published her mother's work. Obama's mother, a fascinating woman, died in 1995. The book is called Surviving Against the Odds:

A few years before her death, Barack Obama's mother completed her doctoral dissertation. Nearly two decades later, S. Ann Dunham's fieldwork has been published — a fulfillment of her dream, courtesy of her daughter.

"She wanted to make sure that the information she produced would not just be interesting," the president's half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, tells All Things Considered host Guy Raz. Dunham wanted her research to "impact the lives of the people."

Over a period of 14 years, Dunham visited and lived among Indonesian villagers. Her work challenged the prevailing view among social anthropologists of the time that Indonesian peasants were better off just cultivating rice. Read more at NPR

Listen to NPR's interview with Obama's sister:

Maya's Sister: Obama a Smart Man A Great Choice

Time: Barack Obama's sister has not emerged in public since the death of their grandmother two days before her brother's historic presidential election, but in a post-election e-mail to close friends, Maya Soetoro-Ng said, "I wept tears of joy for all of us on Tuesday. He may not be a perfect man. Certainly, he has often said that he'll likely be an imperfect President, but he is a good man, a smart man, a disciplined soul who balances temperance with determination and courage. We've made a great choice, I assure you."

Maya Soetero-Ng at Convention Video

Another great moment at the convention.