Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama (center)
Born	(1964-01-17) January 17, 1964 (age 61) Template:City-state
Education	A.B. in sociology (Princeton University) cum laude JD (Harvard Law School)
Occupation(s)	Vice President for Community and External Affairs at University of Chicago Hospitals
Spouse	Barack Obama (1992–present)
Children	Malia and Sasha
Parent(s)	Frasier Robinson and Marian Robinson

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17 1964)^[1] is an American lawyer and the wife of Illinois senator Barack Obama who is a candidate for the 2008 Democratic Party nomination for United States President. She was born and raised on the South Side of Template:City-state and then educated at Princeton University and Harvard Law School. She returned to Chicago after completing her formal education to work for the law firm Sidley Austin, on the staff of the Mayor of Chicago Richard M. Daley, and for the University of Chicago and the University of Chicago Hospitals. She is the sister of Craig Robinson.

She met Barack while working for Sidley Austin. The family lives on Chicago's South Side in Template:City-state, United States, choosing to remain in Chicago rather than moving to Washington, D.C.. She is now perceived as Barack's closest adviser.

Michelle Robinson was born in Template:City-state to Frasier Robinson (who died in 1990),^[1] a city pump operator and Democratic precinct captain, and Marian Robinson, a secretary at Spiegel's catalog store;^[2] she grew up in the South Shore community area of Chicago.^[2][3] Unlike her husband, she was raised in a conventional two-parent home where the family convened around the dinner table nightly.^[4] She and her brother, Craig (who is 16 months older), skipped the second grade.^[2] Michelle, who is 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m) tall,^[5] graduated from Whitney Young High School in 1981^[6] and went on to major in sociology and minor in African American studies at Princeton University, where she graduated cum laude with an Artium Baccalaureus in 1985.^[2] She obtained her Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School in 1988.^[7]

She met Barack Obama when they were the only two African Americans at their law firm and she was assigned to mentor him while he was a summer associate.^[5] Their relationship started with a business lunch and then a community organization meeting where he first impressed her.^[8] The couple's first date was to the Spike Lee movie Do The Right Thing.^[9] The couple married in October 1992,^[8] and they have two daughters, Malia Ann (born 1999) and Natasha (known as Sasha) (born 2001).^[10] Her brother Craig was the 4th leading scorer in Princeton University's men's basketball history, and is now Brown University's men's basketball coach.^[11][12]

In her relationship with her husband, they have respected each other's advice.^[13] She requested that Barack, who was then her fiancé, meet her prospective boss when considering her first career move.^[4] Now, she is her husband’s closest adviser.^[14][13] Early in the presidential race she did not portray herself as an adviser, however. In fact, she was quoted in interviews saying “My job is not a senior adviser.”^[15]

The marital relationship has had its ebbs and flows according to public account. Barack recalled that their first kiss tasted like chocolate. However, the combination of as an evolving family life and begining political career led to many arguments about balancing work and family. In fact, he wrote in his second book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, that "Tired and stressed, we had little time for conversation, much less romance". Now, in addition to the conflict of work and family, Michelle has to deal with the celebrity issues of "being married to a man some adore as a political superstar." according to an appearance on the October 32006 Oprah Winfrey Show.^[16]

Following law school, she was an associate at the Chicago office of the law firm Sidley Austin where she first met her husband. At the firm, she worked on marketing and intellectual property.^[2] Subsequently, she held public sector positions in the Chicago city government as an Assistant to the Mayor and Assistant Commissioner of Planning and Development. In 1993, she became Executive Director for the Chicago office of Public Allies, a non-profit organization encouraging young people to work on social issues in nonprofit groups and government agencies.^[6]

In 1996, Obama served as the Associate Dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago, where she developed the University's Community Service Center.^[17] 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.^[18]

After her husband's book The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, the couple bought a home in the part of the Kenwood community area that is considered part of Hyde Park.^[13] A later transaction to expand their property has become controversial. In June 2005 the Obamas and the wife of Antoin Rezko closed on adjacent properties in Kenwood. The Obamas paid $1.65 million for a brick Georgian revival mansion and the Rezkos paid $625,000 for the adjacent undeveloped lot. In January 2006, Obama paid the Rezkos $104,500 for a strip of their parcel to increase the size of the their side yard. The transaction occurred at a time when Rezko was under investigation. Rezko and Barack Obama had been friends since 1990 and Rezko had raised over $60,000 for Obama during his political career to that point. Obama paid Rezko more than the appraised value for the parcel.^[19] Rezko has since been indicted on corruption charges by a federal grand jury.^[20]

With the ascent of her husband as a prominent national politician, she has become a part of pop culture. In May 2006, Essence magazine listed her among "25 of the World's Most Inspiring Women."^[21] In July 2007, Vanity Fair magazine listed her among "10 of the World's Best Dressed People." In September 2007, 02138 magazine listed her 58th of "The Harvard 100," a list of the prior year's most influential Harvard alumni. Her husband was ranked 4th.^[22]

She served as a salaried board member of TreeHouse Foods, Inc. (NYSE: THS),^[23] a major Wal-Mart supplier with whom she cut ties immediately after her husband made comments critical of Wal-Mart at an AFL-CIO forum in Template:City-state, on May 142007.^[24] She serves on the board of directors of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.^[25]

According to the couple’s 2006 income tax return, Michelle's salary was $273,618 from the University of Chicago Hospitals, while he had a salary of $157,082 from the United States Senate. The total Obama income, however, was $991,296 including $51,200 she earned as a member of the board of directors of TreeHouse Foods, plus investments and royalties from his books.^[26]

In May 2007, three months after Barack’s declaration of his candidacy, she reduced her professional responsibilities by 80% to support her husband’s presidential campaign.^[4] Early in the campaign, she had limited involvement in which she traveled to political events only two days a week and stayed away from home nights only if their daughters could come along.^[1] In early February 2008, she attended thirty-three events in eight days.^[13] Obama has made at least two campaign appearances with Oprah Winfrey.^[27][28]

In 2007, Obama gave political stump speeches for her husband's presidential campaign at various locations in the United States. Jennifer Hunter of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote about one speech of hers in Iowa, "Michelle was a firebrand, expressing a determined passion for her husband's campaign, talking straight from the heart with eloquence and intelligence."^[29] She employs an all-female staff of aides for her political role.^[13] He says that she negotiated an agreement in which her husband gave up smoking in exchange for her support as a Presidential aspirant.^[30] This is her first election year on the national political scene and even before the field of Democratic candidates was narrowed to two she was considered the least famous of the candidates' spouses.^[15] Early in the campaign, she exhibited her sarcasm and told anecdotes about the Obama family life. However, as the press began to emphasize her sarcasm, which did not translate well in the print media, she has toned it down.^[30][26] In a press account of her sarcasm, New York Times op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd said: “I wince a bit when Michelle Obama chides her husband as a mere mortal — comic routine that rests on the presumption that we see him as a god,. . .But it may not be smart politics to mock him in a way that turns him from the glam J.F.K. into the mundane Gerald Ford, toasting his own English muffins. If all Senator Obama is peddling is the Camelot mystique, why debunk this mystique?”^[15][31]

On August 12, 2007, she made a statement that could be interpreted as a swipe at the Clintons, saying "if you can't run your own house you can't run the White House."^[29] The Obama campaign denied the allegation, releasing the full quote which reads "Our view was that, if you can't run your own house, you certainly can't run the White House. So, so we've adjusted our schedules to make sure that our girls are first, so while he's traveling around, I do day trips. That means I get up in the morning, I get the girls ready, I get them off, I go and do trips, I'm home before bedtime." ^[32] Asked in February 2008 whether she would support Hillary Clinton if she got the nomination, Michelle said "I'd have to think about that. I'd have to think about policies, her approach, her tone." ^[33]

Despite her criticisms of Clinton during the 2008 campaign, when asked in 2004 which political spouse she admired, Obama cited Hillary Clinton, stating, "She is smart and gracious and everything she appears to be in public-someone who's managed to raise what appears to be a solid, grounded child." ^[34]

• Harnden, Toby (February 4, 2007). "Obama Prepares to Unveil Secret Weapon". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2007-02-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Keeping Hope Alive Barack Obama Puts Family First, The Oprah Winfrey Show, October 18, 2006
• Michelle Obama's Passion Helps Chicago Center, CBS (Chicago), October 16, 2006
• Michelle Obama Delivers Address on Community Relations at Best Bosses Conference, Winning Workplaces, September 27, 2006
• Jeff Zeleny, Q&A with Michelle Obama, Chicago Tribune, December 24, 2005
• Washington Post article on Michelle Obama and the presidential campaign