Adoring crowds chant his name and Republican opponents compare Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama to Hollywood celebrities.
At home in Chicago, Obama’s wife, Michelle, sometimes reminds him “he’s not all that.”
“She keeps him in check,” said Bethann Hester, 45, of Chicago, a friend of Michelle Obama’s for 15 years. “She holds him to a high standard.”
Michelle Obama takes the stage in Denver tonight, where she’ll seek to sell her husband to America, sharing stories about “the values that drive him, experiences that shaped him, and why I believe he will be an extraordinary president,” she said in an e-mail response to questions submitted by The Denver Post.
“I’ll also share stories about my life and my background with the country.”
While those details might win some voters, just as important, political historians said, is what Michelle Obama, 44, will reveal about her relationship with her husband and how they’d interact in the White House. The first lady, they said, is the person perhaps best positioned to tell the president the truth when he needs to hear it.
“Figuring out what the first lady is going to do in the office is one thing, but even more important is the partnership between a first lady and her husband,” said Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of several books on presidents. “That’s where the influence can be monumental.”
Michelle Obama’s influence likely will be large. She and Barack Obama are so intertwined, one can’t be examined without looking at the other, family and friends say. They finish each other’s sentences, needle each other when needed, are best friends, partners and genuinely in love.
Asked during an event last week at Saddleback Church in California which three people he trusted most and would rely on as president, Barack Obama named his wife first.
“Barack is a wonderful husband and father,” Michelle Obama said. “He is a total partner to me — my best friend, my greatest adviser, my rock. We take great care of each other — in part because we have complementary strengths. I’ve helped him become more organized. He’s helped me become more patient.”
Michelle Obama, as described by her family and friends, is equal parts Wonder Woman and Everywoman. A successful businesswoman, she is seen as dedicated to her daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7; adored by her husband; and shaped by the values of her working-class parents.
“She’s the kindest person that I know,” said Yvonne Davila, 49, of Chicago, who has known Michelle Obama since they worked together in Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley’s office 18 years ago.
At the same time, Michelle Obama has plenty of critics. Obama opponents pounced when she remarked in February, “for the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m really proud of my country.” Obama’s camp said the remark referred to pride in Americans becoming involved in the democratic process.
It’s a comment Republicans will remind people of often through the election.
In southeastern Colorado, people who lost their jobs in 2006 when a pickle plant closed question what role Michelle Obama played. She was on the board of directors of TreeHouse Foods, which shuttered the facility.
“We started hearing after everybody lost their jobs, (that) she had a lot to do with it,” said Michelle Barela, 45, of La Junta, who had worked at the pickle plant for 15 years.
Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki told The Denver Post in 2006 that Michelle Obama “was not the sole vote or even major decider on this issue.”
The daughter of Fraser and Marian Robinson, Michelle Obama grew up in a one-bedroom apartment above her aunt’s home on the South Side of Chicago.
The children learned an ethic of hard work, especially from Michelle Obama’s father, who was diagnosed at age 30 with multiple sclerosis and continued working as a pump operator for the Chicago water department, said Michelle Obama’s brother, Craig Robinson, 46.
As a result, he said, both he and his sister “value how lucky you are to be able to get up and go to work. You can’t complain about anything when you had a dad with MS who gets up and goes to work every day.”
Michelle Obama went to Princeton University on a scholarship, then Harvard Law, then to corporate law firm Sidley Austin LLP in Chicago, where she met Barack Obama in 1989 when she was assigned as his mentor.
“They told her ‘this brilliant young Harvard kid is coming here,’ ” said author Kearns Goodwin, who talked with Michelle Obama during the 2004 Democratic National Convention. “She felt her job in some ways was to knock him down a few pegs, to keep him in line.”
On their first date, the two saw the Spike Lee movie “Do The Right Thing” and went for ice cream. A few months later, Michelle Obama asked her brother to help evaluate her new beau.
“She said, ‘Hey, take him to play a game of basketball and tell me what you think,’ ” said Robinson, hired in April as the head basketball coach at Oregon State University.
Their father, Robinson said, believed that a basketball game revealed people’s personality.
“I found him to be extremely confident but not cocky,” Robinson said. “I found him to have a good sense of team.”
The pair’s marriage makes each of them stronger, Robinson said.
“They complement each other” Robinson said, “in a way that makes them both better, collectively and individually.”
Anne C. Mulkern: 202-662-8907 or amulkern@denverpost.com
Women take the lead before mayor’s welcome
Day one: “One Nation” Time: 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.
KEY FIGURES:
Michelle Obama
The potential first lady addresses Democrats after a rocky summer as the target of conservative attacks. In recent weeks, she has worked to soften her image. Barack Obama’s half sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, and Michelle Obama’s older brother, Craig Robinson, also will have roles at the convention.
Nancy Pelosi
The nation’s first female speaker of the House opens the convention.
Edward M. Kennedy
The Massachusetts senator is the subject of a five-minute recorded tribute. The video tribute will be introduced by his niece, Caroline Kennedy.
Jimmy Carter
The former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner from Plains, Ga.
John Hickenlooper
The party will salute host city Denver with a speaking slot for the city’s Democratic mayor.
Other speakers
Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill; Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar; Jerry Kellman, Barack Obama mentor and friend; Illinois Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.; former Indiana Rep. Lee Hamilton; former Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa; Tom Balanoff, president of the Service Employees International Union-Illinois State Council; Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America; Reg Weaver, president of the National Education Association; Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers; Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan; Illinois State Comptroller Dan Hynes; Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias; Chicago City Clerk Miguel del Valle; and Miami Mayor Manny Diaz
