Day Fifteen, April 9

One of the things that is unique about Hillary Clinton's campaign is that a lot of attention is being paid to her family. This is unavoidable in her case, and there have been some weeks in the race where it has seemed more like Bill is the one running the show on his spouse's campaign, instead of the other way around (at least now Hillary knows what it feels like to be the marionette instead of the puppeteer). Daughter Chelsea Clinton hasn't garnered as much press as her parents, but has still been a frequent sight on the campaign trail, whether traveling with mom and dad or fielding tough questions on her own. In the case of John McCain, the media is obviously more enamored with his spouse's age (he's 72, she'll turn 50 this year) and physique than they are with any actual accomplishments she's made. I'm a little surprised (and grateful) that the phrase 'trophy wife' hasn't been widely applied to Cindy McCain by now, especially since she's perhaps most noteworthy for her position as chair of Hensley & Co., the largest Amheiser-Busch distributor in the American southwest. Somehow, all of Cindy's appearances in the press have glossed over that fact. But I digress.

In the third and final campaign slot sit the Obama family. Besides the increasingly world famous man of the house, Barack, we have Michelle, his wife, and his two young daughters, Malia and Sasha. So far, although the Obama family have made periodic appearances along with Barack on the campaign trail and posed for the requisite family portraits, Obama's wife and children haven't gotten a ton of media attention. And the reason for that is quite simple: because they've got lives of their own. Unlike Bill who is giving Hillary the edge of having twice the Clinton coverage in the U.S., and Cindy whose main contribution to her husband's campaign is taking the cameras off McCain's grandfatherly grimaces, Mrs. Obama has a busy life outside of getting her husband elected to the presidency. Tonight I finished the penultimate chapter in The Audacity of Hope, titled 'Family', in which Barack cuts back on his bigger political visions to tell the story of how he and Michelle met started their family together. Barack describes his wife in a loving passage from the chapter (pg. 327):

"Most people who meet my wife quickly conclude that she is remarkable. They are right about this--she sis smart, funny and thoroughly charming. She is also very beautiful, although not in a way that men find intimidating or women find off-putting; it is the lived-in beauty of the mother and busy professional rather than the touched-up image we see on the cover of glossy magazines. Often, after hearing her speak at some function or working with her on a project, people will approach me and say something to the effect of "You know I think the world of you, Barack, but your wife...wow!" I nod, knowing that if I ever had to run against her for public office, she would beat me without much difficulty.
Fortunately for me, Michelle would never go into politics. "I don't have the patience," she says to people who ask. As is always the case, she is telling the truth.

It is this sort of assertion, which Barack makes more than once throughout his book, that makes me admire her dedication to her husband's campaign even more. She's not in a position to take a pitstop from work and her family to go devote her daily life to the Obama campaign. Still, she makes time to pull out stops like this one, visiting Winston Salem State University on Tuesday. Instead of taking an easy role as policy flagbearer or doting housewife, Michelle spoke to a packed house about some of the faucets of the Obama campaign that make it so exciting to be a part of. From the article: “The energy and excitement has not subsided (since) – not for one second,”. “Something different is going on; people are engaged, they’re focused and they know that we can do better and they’re hopeful, and that’s a good thing for all of us.”

As I stated earlier, Michelle's a busy woman, with the commitments and schedule of any working mother. Her is a short summary listing some of her accomplishments, past and present (source: Wikipedia and The Audacity of Hope):

• Michelle graduated from Chiacgo's first magnet school, Whitney Young High School, in 1981.
  
  
• She went on to study sociology at Princeton, where she graduated cum laude.
  
  
• At the age of twenty-four, Michelle earned her juris doctor from Harvard Law School in 1988.
  
  
• Met Barack at the Sidley Austin law firm after he was hired on (she was his mentor at the firm); they married in 1992.
  
  
• After leaving the firm, Michelle worked as an Assistant to the Mayor of Chicago, gaining experience working the public sector.
  
  
• Became Executive Director for the Chicago Office of Public Allies in 1993, an organization that enabled youth to work in non-profit organizations in the city.
  
  
• In 1996, Michelle 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.

In addition to being able to accomplish all of this by the age of forty-four, Michelle is still working for the University of Chicago, albeit part-time to devote more time to raising her family. And on top of all that, she's still frequently making stops on the campaign trail or in the media to support Barack's run for president. According to Wikipedia, Michelle attended thirty-three events in eight days in February of this year, all of this in spite of her husband's repeated insistence that Michelle 'doesn't like to get too involved in politics'. Michelle's commitment to these functions, and her willingness to suffer the media with grace and her well-known sense of humor, is a testament to both her hard-working nature as well as her faith in Barack's vision for America. The Obama family currently resides in Chicago's south side, not Washington D.C, which puts added strain on Michelle's already astoundingly tough balancing act of career, family, and political campaigning.

I don't want to cheapen how inspiring a person Michelle is by making this a token 'great wife, Barack!' post, so I will be periodically create posts that highlight Michelle's media appearances or stops along the campaign trail. I'm keeping the focus of this blog on things that I think make Obama a unique, challenging and inspiring candidate, but the inspiring story of his wife and family are certainly at the top of that list. If you're old-fashioned enough to still subscribe to that 'behind every great man...' adage, to catch a glimpse of a truly great woman, look no further than Michelle Obama.