Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama
First Lady-elect of the United States
Incumbent
Assumed office January 20, 2009
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Laura Bush
Personal details
Born	Michelle LaVaughn Robinson (1964-01-17) January 17, 1964 Template:City-state
Nationality	American
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Barack Obama (m.1992)
Children	Malia and Sasha Obama
Residence(s)	Chicago, Illinois
Alma mater	Princeton University Harvard Law School
Profession	Lawyer

Michelle LaVaughn Obama, née Robinson, (born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and the wife of Barack Obama, President-elect of the United States and Senator from Illinois. She will be the first African-American to become the First Lady of the United States.

She was born and grew up on the South Side of Chicago and graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School. After completing her formal education, she returned to Chicago and accepted a position with the law firm Sidley Austin, and subsequently worked as part of the staff of Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley, and for the University of Chicago Medical Center.

Michelle Obama is the sister of Craig Robinson, men's basketball coach at Oregon State University. She met Barack Obama when he joined Sidley Austin. After his election to the U.S. Senate, the Obama family continued to live on Chicago's South Side, choosing to remain there rather than moving to Washington, D.C.

She is highly regarded for her style, demeanor, and fashion sense. She has made several appearances on various best-dressed lists and draws frequent comparisons to Jacqueline Kennedy.

Family and education

See also: Michelle Robinson's family tree

Michelle Robinson was born on January 17, 1964, in Chicago, Illinois to Fraser Robinson (who died in 1991), a city water plant employee and Democratic precinct captain, and Marian Shields Robinson, a secretary at Spiegel's catalog store. Michelle can trace her roots to pre-Civil War African Americans in the American South; her paternal great-great grandfather, Jim Robinson, was an American slave in the state of South Carolina, where some of her family still reside. She grew up in the South Shore community area of Chicago, and was raised in a conventional two-parent home. The family ate meals together and also entertained together as a family by playing games such as Monopoly and by reading. She and her brother, Craig (who is 21 months older), skipped the second grade. Michelle attended Whitney Young High School, where she was on the honor roll four years, took advanced placement classes, was a member of the National Honor Society and served as student council treasurer. She was a high school classmate of Santita Jackson, the daughter of Jesse Jackson and sister of Jesse Jackson, Jr. She graduated from high school in 1981, and went on to major in sociology and minor in African American studies at Princeton University, where she graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in 1985.

At Princeton, she challenged the teaching methodology for French because she felt that it should be more conversational. As part of her requirements for graduation, she wrote a thesis entitled, "Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community." She obtained her Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Harvard Law School in 1988. While at Harvard, she participated in political demonstrations advocating the hiring of professors who are members of minorities.

Barack and Michelle Obama.

She met Barack Obama when they were among very few African Americans at their law firm (she has sometimes said only two, although others have pointed out there were others in different departments) and she was assigned to mentor him while he was a summer associate. Their relationship started with a business lunch and then a community organization meeting where he first impressed her. The couple's first date was to the Spike Lee movie Do the Right Thing. The couple married in October 1992, and they have two daughters, Malia Ann (born 1998) and Natasha (known as Sasha) (born 2001). Throughout her husband's 2008 campaign for President of the United States, she has made a "commitment to be away overnight only once a week — to campaign only two days a week and be home by the end of the second day" for their two children.

The marital relationship has had its ebbs and flows according to public account. Barack recalled that their first kiss tasted like chocolate. However, the combination of as an evolving family life and beginning political career led to many arguments about balancing work and family. In fact, he wrote in his second book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, that "Tired and stressed, we had little time for conversation, much less romance". Now, in addition to the conflict of work and family, Michelle has to deal with the celebrity issues of "being married to a man some adore as a political superstar." according to an appearance on the October 3, 2006 Oprah Winfrey Show.

She once requested that Barack, who was then her fiancé, meet her prospective boss, Valerie Jarrett, when considering her first career move. Now, Jarrett is one of her husband’s closest advisors. Early in the presidential race, Michelle Obama did not portray herself as an advisor to her husband. In fact, she was quoted in interviews saying "My job is not a senior advisor."

The Obama's have two daughters: Malia Ann and Sasha. They send their daughters to the University of Chicago Lab School, which is a private school affiliated with the University of Chicago. According to an Obama interview on the 2008 season premiere of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the couple does not intend to have any more children.

Career

Following law school, she was an associate at the Chicago office of the law firm Sidley Austin, where she first met her husband. At the firm, she worked on marketing and intellectual property. Subsequently, she held public sector positions in the Chicago city government as an Assistant to the Mayor, and as Assistant Commissioner of Planning and Development. In 1993, she became Executive Director for the Chicago office of Public Allies, a non-profit organization encouraging young people to work on social issues in nonprofit groups and government agencies. She worked there nearly four years and set fundraising records for the organization that still stood a dozen years after she left.

In 1996, Obama served as the Associate Dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago, where she developed the University's Community Service Center. In 2002, she began working for the University of Chicago Hospitals, first as executive director for community affairs and, beginning May, 2005, as Vice President for Community and External Affairs. She still holds the position, though she is working part time in order to devote more time to being a mother.

She served as a salaried board member of TreeHouse Foods, Inc. (NYSE: THS), a major Wal-Mart supplier with whom she cut ties immediately after her husband made comments critical of Wal-Mart at an AFL-CIO forum in Template:City-state, on May 14, 2007. She serves on the board of directors of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

According to the couple’s 2006 income tax return, Michelle's salary was $273,618 from the University of Chicago Hospitals, while he had a salary of $157,082 from the United States Senate. The total Obama income, however, was $991,296 including $51,200 she earned as a member of the board of directors of TreeHouse Foods, plus investments and royalties from his books.

Lifestyle

With the ascent of her husband as a prominent national politician, she has become a part of pop culture. In May 2006, Essence magazine listed her among "25 of the World's Most Inspiring Women." In July 2007, Vanity Fair magazine listed her among "10 of the World's Best Dressed People." In September 2007, 02138 magazine listed her 58th of "The Harvard 100," a list of the prior year's most influential Harvard alumni. Her husband was ranked fourth. In July 2008, she made a repeat appearance on the Vanity Fair international best dressed list. She also appeared on the 2008 People list of best-dressed women and was praised by the magazine for her "classic and confident" look. Some sources compare her to Jacqueline Kennedy due to her sleek but not overdone style, and other sources such as the New York Times compare her to Barbara Bush as well not only for her fashion sense, but also for her demeanor because she is known for her discipline and decorum. Her fashion sense generally outpolled those of Cindy McCain and Sarah Palin during the 2008 Presidential Election race. Obama's package of attributes is anticipated to be well-suited for the role of First Lady by some. She often wears clothes by designers Calvin Klein,Oscar de la Renta,Isabel Toledo, Narciso Rodriguez, Donna Ricco and Maria Pinto.

There was no active undergraduate chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha at Princeton when Ms. Obama attended. In July 2008, Obama accepted the invitation to become an honorary member of the 100-year-old black sorority.

The Michelle Obama Award, or Symmetry Award, was created in 2008 in honor of Michelle Obama to make awards to those who "demonstrate the qualities and values of First Lady Michelle Obama."

2008 Presidential election

Campaigning for Barack Obama

Michelle Obama speaking at a campaign event in Plymouth, NH.

Although Michelle Obama has campaigned on her husband's behalf since early in his political career by handshaking and fund-raising, she did not relish the activity at first. While campaigning during Barack Obama's 2000 run for U.S. House of Representatives, her boss at the University of Chicago asked if there was any single thing about campaigning that she enjoyed; after some thought, she replied visiting so many living rooms had given her some new decorating ideas.

In May 2007, three months after her husband declared his presidential candidacy, she reduced her professional responsibilities by eighty percent to support his presidential campaign. Early in the campaign, she had limited involvement in which she traveled to political events only two days a week and traveled overnight only if their daughters could come along. In early February 2008, she attended thirty-three events in eight days. She has made at least two campaign appearances with Oprah Winfrey.

In 2007, Michelle gave stump speeches for her husband's presidential campaign at various locations in the United States. Jennifer Hunter of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote about one speech of hers in Iowa, "Michelle was a firebrand, expressing a determined passion for her husband's campaign, talking straight from the heart with eloquence and intelligence." She employs an all-female staff of aides for her political role. She says that she negotiated an agreement in which her husband gave up smoking in exchange for her support of his decision to run. About her role in her husband's presidential campaign she has said: "My job is not a senior adviser." During the campaign, she has discussed race and education by using motherhood as a framework.

This is her first election year on the national political scene and even before the field of Democratic candidates was narrowed to two she was considered the least famous of the candidates' spouses. Early in the campaign, she exhibited her ironic humor and told anecdotes about the Obama family life. However, as the press began to emphasize her sarcasm, which did not translate well in the print media, she toned it down. A New York Times op-ed columnist, Maureen Dowd, wrote:

I wince a bit when Michelle Obama chides her husband as a mere mortal — comic routine that rests on the presumption that we see him as a god ... But it may not be smart politics to mock him in a way that turns him from the glam JFK into the mundane Gerald Ford, toasting his own English muffin. If all Senator Obama is peddling is the Camelot mystique, why debunk this mystique?

Asked in February 2008 whether she could see herself "working to support" Hillary Clinton if she got the nomination, Michelle said "I'd have to think about that. I'd have to think about policies, her approach, her tone." When questioned about this by the interviewer, however, she stated "You know, everyone in this party is going to work hard for whoever the nominee is."

The Obamas, with Joe and Jill Biden at the August 23, 2008 Vice Presidential announcement in Template:City-state.

Despite her criticisms of Clinton during the 2008 campaign, when asked in 2004 which political spouse she admired, Obama cited Hillary Clinton, stating, "She is smart and gracious and everything she appears to be in public — someone who's managed to raise what appears to be a solid, grounded child."

On October 6, 2008 Larry King Live Obama was asked if the American electorate is past the Bradley effect. She stated that Barack's achievement of the nomination was a fairly strong indicator that it is. The same night she also was interviewed by Jon Stewart on the Daily Show where she deflected criticism of her husband and his campaign. Her first Daily Show appearance came after her husband had made three such appearances.

The following weekend, the Obamas held a high-priced fundraiser for the Presidential campaign and for the Democratic National Committee to raise money from women. Obama has also been courting working women.

Her assigned Secret Service codename is "Renaissance".

Criticism for "For the first time in my life" comments

Casual photo in October 2008

On February 18, 2008, Obama commented in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that "For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback." Later that evening she reworded her stump speech in Madison, Wisconsin, saying "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country, and not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change." Several commentators criticized her remarks, and the campaign issued a statement that "anyone who heard her remarks ... would understand that she was commenting on our politics." In June 2008 Laura Bush indicated she thought Michelle Obama's words had been misrepresented in the media "I think she probably meant I'm 'more proud,' you know, is what she really meant," adding, "I mean, I know that, and that's one of the things you learn and that's one of the really difficult parts both of running for president and for being the spouse of the president, and that is, everything you say is looked at and in many cases misconstrued."

Throughout the campaign, the media have often labeled Obama as an "angry black woman," and some websites have attempted to propagate this perception, causing her to respond:

Barack and I have been in the public eye for many years now, and we've developed a thick skin along the way. When you’re out campaigning, there will always be criticism. I just take it in stride, and at the end of the day, I know that it comes with the territory."

By the time of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in August, media outlets observed Obama's presence on the campaign trail had grown softer than at the start of the race, focusing on soliciting concerns and empathizing with audience rather than throwing down challenges to them, and giving interviews to shows like The View and publications like Ladies' Home Journal rather than appearing on news programs. The change was even reflected in her fashion choices, with Obama wearing more and more sundresses in place of her previous designer pieces. The View appearance was partly intended to help soften the perception of her, and it was widely-covered in the press.

2008 Democratic National Convention speech

August 25, 2008 speach at the 2008 Democratic National Convention

Speaking to the crowd

Walking on stage with daughters

Speaking close-up

Michelle Obama was regarded as a charismatic public speaker from the very beginning of the campaign. She delivered the keynote address on the first night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention on August 25, during which she sought to portray herself and her family as the embodiment of the American Dream. Other speakers that night included Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Edward Kennedy, who some expected to steal the limelight. She described Barack as a family man and herself as no different from many women; she also spoke about the backgrounds that she and her husband came from. Obama said both she and her husband believed "that you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond, and you do what you say you're going to do, that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them, and even if you don't agree with them." She also emphasized her love of country, in response to criticism for her previous statements about feeling proud of her country for the first time. Her daughters joined her on the stage after the speech and greeted their father, who appeared on the overhead video screen.

Obama's speech was largely well received and drew mostly positive reviews. A Rasmussen Reports poll found that her favorablity among Americans reached 55%. Political commentator Andrew Sullivan described the speech as "one of the best, most moving, intimate, rousing, humble, and beautiful speeches I've heard from a convention platform." Ezra Klein of The American Prospect, described it as a "beautifully delivered, and smartly crafted, speech" and described Obama as "coming off as wholesome and, frankly, familiar." Katherine Marsh of The New Republic, however, said she missed "the old Michelle... not the Stepford wife fist-bumping Elisabeth Hasselbeck, but the sassy better half who reminded us that while Barack was the answer, he was also stinky in the morning and forgot to put the butter away. She both affirmed his promise and humanized him." Jason Zengerle, also of The New Republic, said Obama should have emphasized her professional and educational achievements as well as her mother, daughter and sister qualities; Zengerle wrote, "It almost makes you long for the days when politicians' wives were seen but not heard. After all, if they're not permitted to really say anything, what's the point of having them speak." Time described the evening's series of speakers as the long awaited passing of the torch from the long line of Kennedy family members to the next man to be the Democratic Party standard bearer.

Fox News controversies

The Obamas enjoy a victory fist pound upon winning the Democratic Nomination. (2008-06-03)

Obama was involved in two of a trio of references to Barack Obama by Fox News that were controversial. On June 11, 2008, the network flashed a graphic that read "Outraged liberals: Stop picking on Obama’s baby mama" during an interview with conservative columnist Michelle Malkin about whether Barack Obama’s wife has been the target of unfair criticism. The couple is lawfully-wedded, and Fox recognized the poor judgment of its own producer in an official statement made to The Politico. Earlier on E. D. Hill's FOX network show America's Pulse, she had referred to the affectionate fist bump shared by the couple on the night he clinched the Democratic Presidential Nomination as a "terrorist fist jab". The network intended to remove her from the air for the remark. In June, she was removed from her duties on the specific show, which was cancelled, and she was reassigned to a capacity to be determined. This capacity had not been announced by August 1, 2008. Hill had previously been demoted while retaining her job at FOX.

Publications

Contributor in: "Health care" by David M Haugen; Detroit: Greenhaven Press/Gale, ©2008. ISBN 9780737740066 073774006X 9780737740073 0737740078

External links

• "Meet Michelle", biographical entry at BarackObama.com
• "Michelle Obama On Love, Family & Politics", interview with Katie Couric of CBS News