Thoroughly modern Michelle, Obama’s other half
DENVER, Colorado (AFP) – Fans adore her as an inspiration and style icon. Right-wing foes have dubbed her an angry black radical. But for first-lady-in-waiting Michelle Obama, she is first and foremost a mom.
As her husband Barack Obama is poised to make history by being crowned the Democratic Party’s first black presidential nominee, Michelle, 44, is doing her best to stay level-headed.
Initially she had sought to stay in the shadows, partly out of a natural tendency to shun the limelight, but mainly for the sake of their young daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7.
But amid the excitement whipped up by Barack’s electrifying campaign for change, Michelle was thrust increasingly into the fore, emerging as a feisty, engaging and charismatic woman with a fierce independent streak.
Her simple, strong dress style often accompanied by fake gobstopper-size pearls, and her hair flip have drawn comparisons with one of America’s most beloved former first ladies Jackie Onassis.
And her candid relevations of life with Obama, 47, and her struggle to juggle family life with her husband’s political ambitions have also won her a legion of fans.
On Monday she will deliver the keynote speech at the opening of the Democratic Party convention in Denver, lighting the touch paper for four days of political pageantry aimed at propelling her husband into the White House.
And the tall — (five feet, 11 inches (1.8 meters) in her stocking feet) — athletic lawyer, who lists Stevie Wonder as her favorite musician on her Facebook page and once earned twice as much as her husband, could prove a very modern kind of first lady.
With degrees from both Princeton and Harvard, Michelle has come a long way from her modest upbringing in a lower middle class family deeply rooted in Chicago’s black community.
Her father suffered from multiple sclerosis but never missed a day’s work at the city’s water plant. Her mother stayed home to look after Michelle and older brother Craig, only later taking on a secretarial job taking when the kids had grown.
Barack first met Michelle Robinson, as she was then known, when he joined the Chicago law firm where she worked. But he had a hard time persuading her to go on a date, with Michelle resisting because they were co-workers.