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By the time Michelle and Barack married, in 1992, she'd quit her big law job for public service work. The couple were married by their then-pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, whose anti-American remarks have raised questions recently about the Obamas' own patriotism. "Obviously, if we had heard anything like that, we wouldn't have been part of it,'' she argues. Though she's been blamed for getting her husband to join the church, Trinity United, she says that instead, "Barack knew the reverend from his work in the city, and we joined together.''
But there's no question that Wright's words were even more damaging when coupled with Michelle's own statement-played on cable television almost as often as Wright's-that "for the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country.'' In the same speech, at a rally in Wisconsin last February, she went on to say that "I feel privileged to even be witnessing this, traveling around states all over this country being reminded that there's more that unites us than divides us, that the struggles of a farmer in Iowa are no different than on the South Side of Chicago, that people are feeling the same pain and wanting the same things for their families.''
Only the "proud'' comment is recalled now, despite her insistence that she didn't mean to say anything more incendiary than that she's never felt prouder. Because Barack Obama is not as well-known as his Republican rival, voters look to his wife for clues about what kind of a person her husband is in a way that they may not look to Cindy McCain. So "changing that first impression will be critical to the public's perception of her,'' said the University of Notre Dame's Robert Schmuhl, "and possibly to whether her husband wins the White House."
She's no longer ambivalent about whether that would be such a good idea: "Eventually I thought, This is a smart man with a good heart, and if the only reason I wouldn't want him to be president is that I'm married to him, no, I can't be that selfish.'' If Barack is elected, Michelle insists, she has no interest in a role beyond that of helpmate and mother. As November approaches, she is impatient with questions about attacks on her: "I could care less-no, I don't want to say that-but I don't worry about me." (She is learning to self-edit.) "I worry about the issues, so the focus should be on moving this ball forward, on the greater good of our kids, the environment, and who cares what they say about me."
"Mmm-hmm," her mom says approvingly. "That's part of the upbringing too."
See a photo slide show of the women at readersdigest.com/firstlady
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