DEL.ICIO.USPublished on: 06/08/08
Her background
Michelle Robinson Obama was born in Chicago on Jan. 17, 1964, the younger of Fraser and Marian Robinson's two children. Her father was a city water plant employee and a Democratic precinct captain, and her mother was a stay-at-home mom. After high school, she was accepted to Princeton University and graduated cum laude. She received her law degree from Harvard and went on to become an associate at a Chicago law firm. After holding public-sector offices with the city of Chicago, she went on to a career in community service with nonprofits. She recently stepped down as vice president of community and external affairs for the University of Chicago Hospitals.
How they met
Michelle Robinson was assigned to mentor Barack Obama in 1989 when he was still in law school and a summer associate at her firm, Sibley Austin. Their relationship was cordial at first, and when he first asked her out, she declined. But she said he impressed her when he took her to a community organizing meeting, and she later accepted an invitation to see a movie, Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing." They became engaged in 1991.
Their life together
The Obamas were married in October 1992. At the time, he was a year out of law school and working as a community organizer. She was working in the mayor's office as assistant commissioner of planning and development. "Barack didn't pledge riches, only a life that would be interesting," she said in an interview on ABC. "On that promise he's delivered." By the time he announced for the presidency, she was earning more than $273,000 a year in her executive capacity for the University of Chicago Hospitals but had begun to work part time to devote her attention to their daughters, Malia Ann (born 1998) and Natasha (2001).
Her challenges
Michelle Obama's personal style — forthright, comfortable in the trenches and often more blunt than Barack Obama — plays well with a broad swath of the electorate, but it has its drawbacks. At an address this year for an African-American awards gala in Atlanta, some in attendance were left feeling that she had been condescending, preaching to a group of achievers about the need to achieve.
She has also had to learn to tamp down her sometimes biting humor, which she has admitted "doesn't translate to print all the time.
"But usually when I'm speaking to a group, people understand what I'm trying to say ... they understand the sarcasm."
Her role in his career
In the beginning, Michelle Obama had significant questions about her husband's candidacy. She pressed advisers for a blueprint of how the campaign would raise money and compete with Sen. Hillary Clinton and other candidates. Now, she is involved in most major facets of campaign strategy, always a fierce protector of her husband's image. While the Obamas seldom travel together, she is often in touch with key advisers, and her message is shaped by the same strategists who advise her husband.
— The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, ABC News, barackobama.com
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