More specifically, Newsweek reports that “Queen Of Our Times: The Life Of Elizabeth II” features what Barack Obama told Ben Rhodes, his senior speechwriter, about Queen Elizabeth II. “I really love the Queen,” Obama supposedly said at the time. “She’s just like Toot, my grandmother. Courteous. Straightforward. All about what she thinks. She doesn’t suffer fools.”
Obama’s grandmother helped raise him and helped him get through private school in Hawaii. In 2008, while he was running against John McCain for president, he took a couple of days off of campaign work in order to say his final goodbye to her. Madelyn Dunham — better known as Toot, which is short for “tutu” and means “grandmother” in native Hawaiian — died at the age of 86 from cancer. She died on November 2, 2008, the day before the election, per Reuters.
Reuters also wrote that Obama and his sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, released a statement at the time, saying, “She was the cornerstone of our family and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength, and humility.” So, in short, the queen received the highest of praise from the then-president, as he compared her to Toot, someone he loves so dearly.
