Obama Barack - Michelle Obama: an American story

Copyright 2009 by David Colbert

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Sandpiper, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, Boston, Massachusetts.

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.

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Hardcover ISBN 978-0-547-24941-4
Paperback ISBN 978-0-547-24770-0

eISBN 978-0-547-34993-0
v2.1013

for Opla Lawrence

A year before the 2008 presidential election, a headline on the Washington, D.C., news website Wonkette asked, Can Michelle Obama Be First Lady No Matter What? At the time, Barack Obama was just one of many Democrats hoping to win the partys nomination. He was still introducing himself to the public. Hillary Clinton was expected to win the nomination easily. But Michelle already had her own fans. They had seen what other voters would soon learn: Michelle was every bit as refreshing as her husband. Possibly more so.

There is no difference between the public Michelle and the private Michelle, says a friend. As Michelles brother, Craig Robinson, put it, Nothing is fake.

Heres whats real:

The first thing she told the White House housekeeping staff was, My daughters are doing chores.

In her opinion, no ones mom and dad are better than her mom and dad. Maybe as good, but not better. Dont even think about it.

Her older brother still calls her for advice.

Shes a hugger. A longtime friend says she connects with people one on one like nobody else. The most difficult kids melt when they talk with her. Shes still friends with at least one of the children she met while running a day care center in college twenty-five years ago.

As sweet as she is with kids, shes that demanding of adults. When she was in elementary school, teachers who made promises they didnt keep heard about it from Michelle.

She has a temper. Fortunately for people whove been on the receiving end, it disappears quickly.

That person you know from school who finished every assignment early? Michelle.

If theres a piano nearby and you ask right, she might play you the Linus and Lucy song from the Peanuts television cartoons.

Shes more careful than Barack. Before he tried to convince voters that Yes We Can, he had to convince Michelle.

Before the biggest speech of Baracks career, when he was unknown outside of his state and had been given the opportunity to open the 2004 Democratic National Convention, she calmed him down right before he went on stage by telling him, Just dont screw it up, buddy.

She has made mistakes. A lot. Some of them more than once. She has an honors degree from Princeton and a law degree from Harvard, thanks to a lot of hard work, but at times she has wondered if she made the right choice to follow that path.

So where does it all come from? Michelle is full of confidence and will take on any task, but she truly believes shes ordinary. She thinks she is just a working mom who listened when her parents taught her to work hard. When she tells students they can be where she is, she means it. Sometimes Michelle gets annoyed when the press says she and Barack are special because theyve accomplished so much. It can sound like the press is surprised Michelle and Barack could have gone to Princeton and Columbia and Harvard, or raised great kids. But that reaction is also part of Michelles personality. She knows a lot of people who are doing the same thing, and she thinks they should be noticed. Shes saying, Hey, look at my friend over here.

But of course Michelle and Barack arent ordinary in every way. What theyve achieved is unique. Yes, Michelle is just a working mom who shops online to save time. Shes also the first White House resident to descend from slaves. That matters, and she knows it.

Michelles family story goes back to the rice plantations of South Carolina, which were notoriously deadly. It follows the path of America through the Civil War and freedom, the Jim Crow segregation laws, the Great Migration of African Americans to cities in the north, the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and the womens movement. No other resident of the White House can say that, not even Barack. Baracks familyboth his parents and the grandparents who helped raise himcome from a different American tradition. Looking for a fresh start, more than once, they reinvented themselves with changes of careers and moves to new places. Baracks Kenyan father came to America looking for new opportunities. His mother and grandparents followed the centuries-old pattern of moving west for a second or third chance. They moved from Kansas to Washington State and then to Hawaii, where Barack was born.

The fresh start America offers is special, and its always a thrill when a dream is fulfilled in an instant. But Michelles story, with its close ties to the countrys past, shows the virtue of keeping a dream alive for as long as it takes.

Chicago, 1968: Four-year-old Michelle LaVaughn Robinson is trying hard to make her mother, Marian, know she doesnt want attention. Shes holding a book that her mother wants to use to teach her to read. Michelle doesnt want help. Shes going to teach herself. Michelles brother, Craig, who is two years older, has been reading on his own since he was Michelles age. If he can do it, she can. Shell show everyone.

It doesnt happen that way in the end. Marian Robinson teaches Michelle to read. But the pattern is set. Michelle is going to work her way up to the standards she sees around her.

Keeping up with Craig is already a challenge. Hes about to skip the second grade. Eventually, as their mother put it, hell be able to pass a test just by carrying a book under his arm. Watching Craig makes Michelle want to be as good or better.

In time, Michelles instinct about reading like Craig will carry over into athletics, card games, checkers, Monopoly, and, naturally, school. But the two Robinson children are friendly rivals. They stay up in the night talking. They play together, and Craig looks out for Michelle. Years later, in a speech on national television, she will call him my mentor, my protector, and my lifelong friend.

At crucial moments in each of their lives, the other one will help with advice or an example to follow: a choice about colleges, for example, or advice about a frightening decision to leave a comfortable life for something more meaningful. She might seem intimidating at first because shes so smart, Craig says, but my sister is a very warm and sympathetic person. When the chips are down, she and my wife are the people I talk to.

Michelle and Craig get along better than most siblings for a few simple reasonsto start, their parents wont tolerate anything less, and they are both likableas well as some reasons that arent so obvious. During the presidential campaign, Craig Robinson told reporters that to understand Michelle they needed to know about their father, Fraser Robinson III. He could have been speaking about himself too. Fraser Robinsons life shaped his childrens personalities in ways that had a lot to do with Michelles progress to the White House.

Its a cool October day in Chicago in the early 1970s. Michelle Robinson, still in grade school, is holding her fathers hand as he knocks on a neighbors door. While they wait, her father steadies himself with his cane. Fraser Robinson III is a big man, and stronghe was a talented boxer and swimmerbut he has multiple sclerosis. It appeared when he was thirty, just a year or so after Michelle was born. Over the course of many years, the disease will leave him unable to walk more than a short distance. Hell trade in the cane for a pair of crutches, and sometimes use a motorized cart.