Michelle Obama Solidifies Her Role in the Election

[question everything]

The Wall Street Journal

Michelle Obama Solidifies Her Role in the Election
By MONICA LANGLEY
February 11, 2008; Page A1

On a conference call to prepare for a recent debate, Barack Obama brainstormed with his top advisers on the fine points of his positions. Michelle Obama had dialed in to listen, but finally couldn't stay silent any longer. "Barack," she interjected, "Feel -- don't think!" Telling her husband his "over-thinking" during past debates had tripped him up with rival Hillary Clinton, she said: "Don't get caught in the weeds. Be visceral. Use your heart -- and your head." The campaign veterans shut up. They knew that Mrs. Obama's opinion and advice mattered more to their candidate than anything they could say.

With the Democratic presidential race wide open, Mrs. Obama, a 44-year-old Princeton- and Harvard Law-educated hospital executive, is assuming the same dominant role in Sen. Obama's public life that she has in his private life. At home, she expects a lot of every family member, from having her 6- and 9-year-old daughters set their own alarm clocks to insisting her husband pick up his dirty socks. Her most recent directive to him: Stop smoking. On the campaign trail, she has emerged as an influential adviser whom aides watch as a barometer for how both they and the candidate are doing. They watch for "the look" between her and Mr. Obama, on stage or in private moments, as an indication of his mood. Inside the campaign, she's been dubbed "the closer" because she often pushes harder to seal the deal with voters than he does. But worries about her sarcastic humor being taken the wrong way have forced her to cut back some of her public candor, she admits.

The role of spouses in presidential politics is evolving, from one of smiling wife to equal and visible partner -- complete with appearance schedule, entourage and opinions. With this, though, comes greater potential to be either an asset or a liability... The Obamas present themselves as equals. "We're two well-versed lawyers who know each other really well," Mrs. Obama says in an interview. "We each think we're right about everything, and can argue each other into a corner." Friends and campaign aides describe them as a high-powered team built on contrasts: She's the heart to his head, the enforcer to his lapses, regimented to his laid-back, critic to his ego, details to his broad strokes, sarcasm to his sincerity, toughness to his cool vibe. Mrs. Obama's campaign role is growing in ways big and small. After a sporadic start due to her reluctance to upend her family's life, she has picked up steam... But sometimes her approach can backfire. When she told audiences that her husband is "snore-y and stinky" in the morning, doesn't put the butter back in the fridge and one morning "put on his clothes and left" while she juggled her own schedule to deal with an overflowing toilet, some voters and observers cringed that she was emasculating her husband.

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A striking woman who's as tall as her husband when she wears her Jimmy Choo heels, she grew up in a four-room apartment with a kitchen the size of a closet. Her father, a pump operator at the city water plant, and her stay-at-home mother pushed their two children to be "achievers" and get the education they didn't have, says her brother, Craig Robinson. They both went to Princeton in the 1980s... After law school, she returned to Chicago to join the high-powered firm of Sidley Austin as an associate specializing in intellectual property. Friends say she worried about selling out but wanted to pay off her education loans... Shortly after they got engaged, Mrs. Obama moved from her law firm to the staff of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, as a liaison with service agencies on tasks such as finding shelters for the homeless during the winter. In 1992, she married Mr. Obama, who was launching his own unconventional career, working at a small public-interest firm, teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago and writing a memoir called "Dreams of My Father." They lived in a South Side condo.

(snip)

Around this time Mrs. Obama, employed by the University of Chicago Medical Center, was promoted to vice president of community affairs and joined the board of a food company, TreeHouse Foods Inc., leading to whispers that her career had taken off with her husband's political prominence. "I understand why people want to make sure that somehow I'm not using my husband's influence to build my career," she told the local media. "And I haven't." She resigned the boardroom post last year. With Mr. Obama in the Senate, some advisers suggested they move to Washington. Mrs. Obama said no -- she wanted to leave the girls in the school they loved and keep her job at the medical center. By the end of 2006, with her husband on the verge of running for president, Mrs. Obama worried about the effect on their family and finances. She knew she'd probably have to cut back on her own earning potential to join him on the campaign trail. She worried, too, about his safety. She was told that if any threats against his life were made, the Secret Service and the campaign would bolster his protection. In the end, she decided to support his run. "My mother raised us not to make decisions on what could go wrong or we'd never go forward," she says.


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URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120269904120358135.html (subscription)

[Bicoastal]

1. There WAS a time when Obama's speeches were all wonky--policy ideas and so forth...

...it may have Michelle to told him THEN to "Feel--don't Think!"

Seems to be working much better now.

[cooolandrew]

2. She will potentially make an amazing 1st lady. There is no way women's rights will be overlooked ...

... with Michelle at his side

[question everything]

5. She has not stayed home baking cookies, either

but no one has given her any grief.

[lisa58]

3. I like Michele

[Olney Blue]

4. Great read- thanks for posting!