Michelle Obama reaches out to London.
Last night I met Michelle Obama in London. She was very impressive. Not in a smarty pants, I-know-more-about-policy-than-you-do way, but in a down home, I'm-a-mom-and-I-struggle-too way. I kept thinking I could easily see her fitting into my circle of friends, not a feeling I've ever had with any other candidate's spouse.
She's from South-side Chicago, and she doesn't try to hide her roots. Her accent sounds just like my neighbors in Madison, who were also from South Chicago. I remember bonding with them right away, because they talked like my kind of folks, solidly down-home people, who don't hang out very often in fancy hotels, who don't temper their speech with $100 words and meaningless platitudes. Despite the fact she has degrees from Princeton and Harvard, and is on Vanity Fair's Best Dressed List (she looked stunning, yet casual, in black skirt and tight-fitting top) she really is Just Folks.
She's the Bill Clinton of political spouses. In other words, she has the ability to reach out and engage personally with everyone in an audience. She feels your pain. I was convinced someone had prepped her in advance with my life story: she spoke about finding money to send your kids to college, how hard it is to find good childcare and good schools, rushing her girls to their after-school activities, having a father who was handicapped (he had MS and was in a wheelchair before he died).
She totally gets it. A professional woman, who wants to be home with her family every night, she bemoaned her crazy travel schedule. But she also has a dream that her husband will one day take the oath of office and close the gap between "the world that is" and "the world that can be."
She had a lot to say about women's issues, about the struggles of working full time and raising children. When she's First Lady she wants to focus on family issues, she says, after joking when asked about the perceived role of First Ladies: "I'm gonna tear that up!"
I spoke to her after her talk, saying I too had two daughters, the last one recently off for college. She seemed a bit envious, telling me I had it made now. (I should have reminded her about that happiness survey, and how she's due to be a lot happier in a couple of years herself.)
Michelle Obama, the Bill Clinton of political spouses.
One other thing: Michelle (I feel we're on a first name basis now) is very tall. I don't often meet women taller than me, but in her high heeled boots, she towered over me, and just about everyone else at the event. She'll look great at those inaugural balls, a 21st century Jackie Kennedy, yet much more approachable than any Kennedy.
While Michelle Obama talked a lot about the hope her husband represents, I couldn't help but be filled with hope watching her, a black woman from South Chicago, talking about the possibility of living in the White House one day and utterly changing the status quo. We've come such a long way from the days when a judge ordered my elementary school to be integrated in the 70s. I had no idea then I'd one day be voting for a black man of my age, in a race to determine the president of the United States.
