Michelle Obama speaks Monday night at the opening of the Democratic National Convention at the Pepsi Center. The Denver Post asked her several questions in an e-mail.
These are her responses:
For a profile on Michelle Obama, see Monday’s Denver Post.
Q. In your speech at the convention, what are some of the issues you plan to touch on?
A. I love my husband, and I’m probably the person who knows him best, so I’ll share some stories about him — the values that drive him, experiences that shaped him, and why I believe he will be an extraordinary president. I’ll also share stories about my life and my background with the country.
Q. To you, what is the job of a First Lady? How would you bring you experience as a career woman to that?
A. Every First Lady has to decide for herself what kind of role she’d like to play in the White House, and how she can best serve her country given her particular strengths, talents and interests.
Should I have the honor of being our country’s next First Lady, my first responsibility, of course, would be to my girls. As their mom, my most important job is to make sure they have a happy and healthy transition from Chicago to Washington.
Once they’re settled, I would continue doing the work that’s closest to my heart—in particular, finding ways to support working women and families. To me, policies that support families aren’t just political. They’re personal. They’re the issues that I carry with me every single day, whether I’m at home or out on the campaign trail.
I’d also continue to advocate for national service. I started my career as a lawyer, but eventually I realized that my heart just wasn’t in it. I really wanted to do something that would directly improve people’s lives. So I became the founding executive director of an organization called Public Allies, an AmeriCorps program that prepares young people for careers in public service.
Later, I developed the first community service program at the University of Chicago. As First Lady, I would build on those experiences, and work to elevate national service, especially among young people.
Q. Many people have commented on your clothing and appearance. How do you feel about this? You’re an Ivy League graduate and a successful attorney and people talk about your clothes. Is it a compliment, or sexist, or some of each?
A. I’ve never thought of myself as a particularly fashionable person, so I find the compliments very flattering. I certainly don’t take any offense to people noticing my clothes. But I have to be honest—half the time I don’t give any thought to how I look. My top priority is comfort. I run around after my daughters all day, going from school to soccer practice to sleepovers — what I’m wearing is truly the last thing on my mind.
Q. Your father was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at 30. How did growing up with your father and his illness influence who you are today? How did it affect your views on health care?
A. My father has always been my personal hero and greatest teacher. He and my mother valued hard work, independence, honesty and compassion, and they worked to instill those values in me and my brother Craig every day of our lives.
Despite his illness, my father got up every single day and went to work without a single complaint. He never stopped smiling or laughing. He never stopped taking care of his family.
I think of my dad every day. Every single day. I think of him when I look at my girls, when I’m laughing with my brother or talking with my mom. And I’ve thought of him throughout this campaign, as I have through every major experience of my life. I constantly hear his voice in my head. In everything I do, I try to make him proud of me.
I’m always amazed at how different things are for working families today than when I was growing up. When I was kid, my father, a blue-collar city worker, could earn enough from his job to support our whole family while my mother stayed home to take care of me and my brother.
But today, one income – especially a shift worker’s income like my dad’s – just doesn’t cut it anymore. In most families, both parents have to work. And it’s even harder for single parents. These parents often work more than one job to make ends meet—and even then, they can’t always afford health care for their family.
Too many people are struggling to pay their medical bills, or choosing between filling their prescriptions or filling their gas tanks. I know that everybody isn’t as lucky as my family was. Despite his illness, my dad was still able to work each day, so he could provide for our family.
So the issue of making affordable for all Americans is very important to me. Of course, it’s also important to Barack. He has pledged to provide quality, affordable health care for all Americans by the end of his first term.
Q. Your brother told me that you have a good sense of humor. What really cracks you up?
A. My girls are hilarious. Just watching the two of them, the things that come out of their mouths, their reactions—they crack me up.
Q. Your brother also told me that you and Barack complement each other. How do you think each of you makes the other better?
A. Barack is a wonderful husband and father. He is a total partner to me—my best friend, my greatest advisor, 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.
Q. Your husband is mixed race and grew up in Hawaii with an international background. You bring a different perspective, an African-American who grew up in the south side of Chicago. What do you think that background would bring to the White House and an Obama administration?
A. One of the things that I talk about when I’m out campaigning is that my story is not particularly special. I’m a product of Chicago public schools, and a blue-collar household where I was taught the value of hard work, responsibility, and staying focused on my dreams and goals, even if that meant overcoming obstacles.
The same goes for Barack. He grew up in a single-parent household — he didn’t really know his father—and he watched his mother work incredibly hard to support him and his sister. She really struggled to pay bills and make ends meet. They went on food stamps at one point. So when I hear stories of families worried about rising gas prices, and the costs of food, it wasn’t that long ago when Barack and I had those same concerns.
Barack and I aren’t extraordinary people. As he likes to say, ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things, when they work together. That’s the bedrock principle of his campaign: we’re all in this together.
If Barack is elected, the American people will have a leader who knows what it means to struggle, and who will work hard to support working families who are struggling to hold it together.
Q. Stipulating that it’s been many years since you graduated from college, I want to ask about Princeton thesis. You wrote about being on the periphery of white society and the split between identifying with white culture vs. black culture. You also talked about the responsibility to help lower-class blacks. How has this campaign affected your views on that?
A. I’ve learned a valuable lesson many times in my life, and I’ve seen it exemplified in this campaign: as Americans, there is so much more that unites us than divides us.
As I’ve traveled across the country, meeting people of every age, race, socio-economic and political background, I’ve realized that regardless of what side of the issues we may fall, we all love our families. We all want what’s best for them. At the end of the day, we want our loved ones to be safe, happy and whole.
The gestures of goodwill that I’ve seen on the trail have been truly inspirational. I was in Missouri last month, hosting a roundtable discussion with working women, and a woman stood up.
She was young, maybe 20-years-old, she had a new baby, and she didn’t know anyone because she had just moved there. And she was in tears because she was trying to deal with her husband’s redeployment — he is in the Army — and she just felt totally lost.
And at the other end of the table, another woman stood up, and said, “I don’t know you. But when we leave here, I am going to give you my number and my name and you are going to call me, and I am going to be there with you every step of the way.”? That is the America we believe in. That’s the America we are working to restore.
Q. How are you preparing yourself and your daughters for potentially living in the White House in a fairly sequestered environment? How do you/would you insulate them from controversy?
A. Our girls have been wonderful throughout this process. Barack and I are really proud of how they’ve handled themselves over the last year and a half. They’re very independent and self-sufficient, not to mention confident.
Also, they’re still at an age where they really don’t care about their dad’s campaign. So while the transition from Chicago to Washington would be big, they’re two resilient little girls, and I’ll do everything I can to help them to adjust to their new environment.
I’ve had an opportunity to talk to people who’ve done this before. I’ve had great conversations with Hillary Clinton, Tipper Gore and Caroline Kennedy, who have all done beautiful jobs raising their children in similar situations. They’ve given me great advice on how to make sure that your kids stay grounded and happy. They’ve been tremendous resources throughout the campaign.
Q. I read in an interview that Barack said you are very competitive and get upset when he beats you at Scrabble. What is your Scrabble strategy? Save the big value letters? Play what you have immediately for the biggest points? Try for the letters that will give you seven-letter words? Play lots of two-letter words for points both ways?
A. Barack and I both love Scrabble, and we have long and extremely competitive games of Scrabble. So I just cannot give up my strategy so easily. Barack will use it against me.
