“Barack Obama: The Story”

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/336427/20120502/genevieve-cook-barack-obama-dating-diary-journal.htm

David Maraniss, the Pulitzer
prize-winning journalist and biographer has unearthed a treasure trove
of love letters and journal entries from President Barack Obama's ex-girlfriends to paint a picture of the what the twenty-something Barack Obama was like during his largely undocumented years spent in New York City
An excerpt from the book published in advance by Vanity Fair focuses on his romantic relationships with Genevieve Cook and another woman, Alex McNear after graduating from Columbia Law School. According to the book, Obama was an intelligent and gentle man who
struggled with his own identity and constantly worked to define himself. Here are the juiciest bits:
1. Obama was a lady-killer in his day:
Describing her first date with the future United States president, Genevieve Cook wrote:
I'm pretty sure we had dinner maybe the Wednesday. I think maybe he cooked
me dinner. Then we went and talked in his bedroom. And then I spent the
night. It all felt very inevitable.
Clearly, Barry had 'the moves' as a young man, but what was the secret recipe to his success with Cook?
2. A distinct fragrance:
In her unearthed journals, Genevieve Cook described the specific mixture
of smells that overwhelmed her when she entered his room, and still
symbolize Obama so many years later for her.
I open the door,
that Barack keeps closed, to his room, and enter into a warm, private
space pervaded by a mixture of smells that so strongly speak of his
presence, his liveliness, his habits - running sweat, Brut spray
deodorant, smoking, eating raisins, sleeping, breathing.
3. The morning after...
After spending the night, Cook and Obama would often spend their Sundays
lounging around his apartment, only partially clothed. In Maraniss's
article he writes:
(Cook) remembered how on Sundays Obama would lounge around, drinking coffee and solving the New York Times crossword puzzle, bare-chested, wearing a blue and white sarong.
Despite this seemingly idyllic relationship, Cook wrote in her journal that
there was always something off about their relationship.
4. Was Obama too cool for his own good?