Cass Sunstein remembers a special date

The administrator of the White House's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs shared a special personal memory in his keynote speech at the Brookings Institution.

Keynote speeches often benefit from the personal touch, as Cass Sunstein, administrator of the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, demonstrated at a conference held on e-rulemaking at the Brookings Institution.

Sunstein began his speech Nov. 30 by sharing a memory of his first date with his future wife.

“I wasn’t even sure it was a date. I hoped it was a date,” Sunstein said. “She asked me, if you could have any job in the world, what would you do?”

Noting that his date probably expected to hear of an aspiration to be a professional football player or guitarist for Bruce Springsteen, Sunstein said he was honest and revealed that his dream job was to be administrator for the White House information and regulatory affairs office.

Her reaction? “Her eyes glazed over,” Sunstein recalled. “She said, ‘oh, heck.’ ”

But the story obviously ended happily.

“I did get a second date,” Sunstein said.

His wife is Samantha Power, a professor of public policy at Harvard University.