Michelle Obama Watch

“President-elect Obama, who turned 35 that year, describes growing up with a single mother and absent father, and says, “I think that in a certain way, I’ve tried all my life to fabricate a family through stories, memories, friends or ideas. Michelle’s family life was different, very stable with two parents, a stay-at-home mom, a brother, a dog, that kind of thing. They’ve lived in the same house all their lives. And I think that in a certain way we complement each other”

“Describing Michelle as “alluring” and with “a strong personality,” the future President says, “if you look deep into her eyes, there’s a certain vulnerability. In any case, I see it even if most don’t realize it: she goes through life tall, beautiful, confident, very able…There’s a part of her that is fragile, young, sometimes scared, and I think these are contradictions that attracted me to her.”

“…everyone was talking about Barack. I’m more of the skeptical kind, I was thinking, ‘Yeah, he’s probably an idiot, whatever.’”

Why was she skeptical?  “Because I always thought that when lawyers rave about someone, they always neglect the relational qualities,” Michelle says, “so I told myself, ‘He might be brilliant, but he’s probably very ordinary.’

“It’s not every day that a girl from the South Side of Chicago meets someone who speaks Indonesian, who has traveled and has seen many fascinating things,” she says.

Asked how she envisions her future with her husband, Michelle says, “there’s a strong possibility that Barack will pursue a career in politics, although it’s not very clear yet.

“When you start in politics, you have to confide in all sorts of people,” she continues. “We may go in that direction, even though I also want to have children, travel, and spend time with my family and friends. It’s not certain that we will succeed.