Michelle Obama
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28 “I’m proud in how Americans are”: “Michelle Obama Seeks to Clarify ‘Proud’ Remark,” Associated Press, February 21, 2008.
29 Reflecting on the episode: Robert Gibbs, interview with author, 2008.
30 “Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress”: The O’Reilly Factor, Fox, January 26, 2009.
31 The cartoon depicted Michelle: New Yorker, July 21, 2008.
32 “as the fear-mongering”: Nico Pitney, “Barry Blitt Defends His New Yorker Cover Art of Obama,” Huffington Post, July 13, 2008.
33 “Mom doesn’t love her country”: Rosemary Ellis, “A Conversation with Michelle Obama,” Good Housekeeping, November 2008.
34 “How can Michelle Obama be”: Verna Williams, “The First (Black) Lady,” Denver University Law Review 86 (June 1, 2009).
35 “It is one of the chief requirements”: Marjorie Williams, “Barbara’s Backlash!,” Vanity Fair, August 1992.
36 “who understands the Constitution”: Michelle Obama, speech in Iowa, 2007.
37 “You are amazed sometimes”: Michael Powell and Jodi Kantor, “After Attacks, Michelle Obama Looks for a New Introduction,” New York Times, June 18, 2008.
38 “This is the choice we face”: Patrick Healy and Jeff Zeleny, “Wisconsin Hands Obama Victory, Ninth in a Row,” New York Times, February 20, 2008.
39 “helped bring me to Jesus”: Obama, Obama for America statement, March 14, 2008.
40 “Fact number one”: Ben Wallace-Weld, “Destiny’s Child,” Rolling Stone, February 22, 2007.
41 The source was an ABC News: Brian Ross, ABC, March 13, 2008.
42 “What you had was a moment”: Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson, The Battle for America 2008: The Story of an Extraordinary Election, p. 201.
43 “This Jeremiah Wright thing”: Marty Nesbitt, interview with author.
44 “The conversation that Barack and I had”: Cash Michaels, “Wright Episode Was ‘Opportunity’ to Lead, Says Mrs. Obama,” New York Amsterdam News, April 18, 2008.
45 “We need energy and fight”: Plouffe, Audacity to Win, p. 212.
46 “Michelle was very good in moments like”: Ibid., p. 213.
47 Barack told worried campaign: Ibid., p. 208.
48 What Barack “did in his speech was give”: MacKensie Carpenter, “Michelle Obama Wows Them at CMU,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 3, 2008.
49 “I was incredibly proud”: Michaels, “Wright Episode.”
50 He called the performance “appalling”: Barack Obama, remarks in Winston-Salem, N.C., April 29, 2008.
51 “And they’re like, ‘Ooh, this is a big night’ ”: Rosemary Ellis, “A Conversation with Michelle Obama,” Good Housekeeping, November 2008.
52 It frustrated her and shook: David Axelrod, interview with author.
53 “They were afraid they were going”: Forrest Claypool, interview with author.
54 “She was angry that everyone was tiptoeing”: Ibid.
55 “Okay, let me try it again”: Ibid.
56 “It only takes one person”: David Mendell, Obama: From Promise to Power, p. 382.
57 “What I remember most was”: Michelle Obama, speech in Orangeburg, S.C., November 2007.
58 “great sympathy and outpouring”: Mendell, p. 382.
59 Durbin relayed the information: Richard Durbin, interview with author.
60 “I don’t lose sleep”: 60 Minutes, CBS, February 2007.
61 Yet so did Richard Epstein: Richard Epstein, interview with author.
62 “You grow up very comfortable”: Arne Duncan, interview with author, 2008.
63 The average white metropolitan resident: Mary Pattillo, interview with author.
64 He won, and sent her: Ellen Warren, “Economist Gets Nobel, but Ex-Wife Is the Real Winner,” Chicago Tribune, October 20, 1995.
65 During the 1968 Democratic National Convention: George Hrbek, interview with Rhaina Cohen.
66 In 1971, four firebombs: “Firebombs Damage Hyde Park Church,” Chicago Tribune, June 21, 1971.
67 “filled with good spirits”: Hrbek, interview with Rhaina Cohen.
68 She mixed water and lye: Rachel Swarns, American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White, and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama, p. 63.
69 “black and white together”: Comment attributed to comedians Mike Nichols and Elaine May.
70 “It’s a place where you can be who you are”: Blue Balliett, interview with author.
71 In an outdoor cage: Jamie Kalven, interview with author.
72 “for whom the fact of living together”: Ibid.
73 “If we could take Hyde Park”: Valerie Jarrett, interview with author, 2008.
74 “It’s scary”: Alex Leary, “It’s Michelle Obama’s Time of Opportunity,” St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, August 25, 2008.
75 It was important to us for a whole range”: David Axelrod, interview with author.
76 Michelle’s poll numbers: Plouffe, Audacity to Win, p. 301.
77 “Surreal is almost like”: Kristen Gelineau, “Would-be First Lady Drifts into Rock-Star Status, Tentatively,” Associated Press, March 30, 2008.
78 “How are you!”: Michelle Obama, campaign office visit, Akron, Ohio.
79 “Congratulations, Mr. President “: Craig Robinson, A Game of Character: A Family Journey from Chicago’s Southside to the Ivy League and Beyond, p. 243.
80 As he rode through the city: Ibid., p. 244.
81 “I’m thinking justice”: MyKela Loury, interview with author.
82 “We’re finally free”: Tracy Boykin, interview with author.
83 thinking of Emmett Till: David Remnick, The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama, p. 558.
84 “We cried together”: Capers Funnye, interview with author.
12 | NOTHING WOULD HAVE PREDICTED
1 “They could not have been kinder”: The Tom Joyner Radio Show, August 27, 2013.
2 “My wife and I”: Craig Robinson, interview with author, 2009.
3 “many young boys and girls”: Michelle Obama, remarks at the U.S. Capitol, April 28, 2009.
4 “in the crosshairs”: Verna L. Williams, “The First (Black) Lady,” Denver University Law Review 86 (June 1, 2009).
5 “People are going to be watching”: Verna Williams, interview with author.
6 “figuring out the job”: Michelle Obama, remarks to reporters, White House, January 13, 2010.
7 “It wasn’t smooth”: Jackie Norris, interview with author.
8 “It is so hard to project”: Robin Roberts, Good Morning America, ABC News, May 22, 2007.
9 “I have a huge responsibility”: Michelle Obama, remarks at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., November 11, 2011.
10 “I’m not here for me”: Anita McBride, interview with author.
11 “There’s no way I could discuss things”: Kati Marton, Hidden Power: Presidential Marriages That Shaped Our Recent History, p. 232.
12 “It’s the type of thing that”: Ibid., p. 209
13 “saw an open, honest woman”: Ibid.
14 “The turmoil in my heart”: Ibid., pp. 61–62.
15 “Did my Eleanor relate”: Ibid., p. 64.
16 “If I were a Negro today”: Eleanor Roosevelt, “If I Were a Negro,” Negro Digest, October 1, 1943.
17 “she said, ‘If I were’ ”: John Johnson, oral history, TheHistoryMakers.com.
18 “Everything you do, every piece of blood”: Katherine Boyle, “EPA: Agency Is at Center of President’s ‘Highest Priorities,’ First Lady Says,” E&E News PM, February 26, 2009.
19 “trailblazer in civil rights”: Michelle Obama, remarks at the U.S. Department of Transportation, February 23, 2009.
20 “We are going to need you”: Michelle Obama, remarks at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, February 19, 2009.
21 “to learn, to listen, to take”: Michelle Obama, remarks at the U.S. Department of Education, February 2, 2009.
22 “a luxury that a working class kid”: Mic
helle Obama, remarks at the Corporation for National and Community Service, May 12, 2009.
23 “my new home town”: Michelle Obama, speech at Washington Mathematics Science Technology High School graduation, June 3, 2009.
24 “opening the doors”: Michelle Obama, remarks at Anacostia High School, March 19, 2009.
25 “Well, she’s not following”: Lois Romano, “White House Rebel,” Newsweek, June 20, 2011.
26 “One of those schools”: Roscoe Thomas, interview with author.
27 “I never set foot on it”: Michelle Obama, remarks at Anacostia High School, March 19, 2009.
28 “You brothers are lucky”: Ibid.
29 “She told them how a lot of people”: Robin Givhan, “Speaking Not of Pomp, but Circumstance,” Washington Post, June 4, 2009.
30 When the day was over: Michelle Obama, remarks at the White House, November 2, 2009.
31 “She really wanted to think”: Jocelyn Frye, interview with author.
32 “In every phase of my life”: Michelle Obama, speech at Detroit Institute of Arts, May 27, 2010.
33 “substance and fun”: Ibid.
34 “It’s not sufficient”: Jocelyn Frye, interview with author.
35 Just hours before: Peter Baker, “Inside Obama’s War on Terror,” New York Times Magazine, January 5, 2010.
36 lost an estimated 741,000: “The Employment Situation: March 2009,” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
37 and 652,000 in March: “The Employment Situation: May 2009,” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
38 “a nation in crisis”: Peter Baker, “Obama Takes Oath and Nation in Crisis Embraces the Moment,” New York Times, January 21, 2009.
39 “She’s just very pragmatic”: Marty Nesbitt, interview with author.
40 “She is completely honest”: Valerie Jarrett, interview with author.
41 “She likes to say, ‘This is not what people’ ”: Susan Sher, interview with author.
42 “In a job like this”: Cynthia McFadden, “The Contenders: Family Ties,” Nightline, ABC News, October 8, 2012.
43 “Now I can just pop over”: Oprah Winfrey, “Oprah Talks to Michelle Obama,” O, The Oprah Magazine, April 2009.
44 “where he lets himself feel”: Deval Patrick, interview with author.
45 In the residence: Details from whitehousemuseum.org.
46 “Valerie was the counselor”: Jackie Norris, interview with author.
47 “Do you still recognize me?”: Robin Givhan, “One Lady, One Year, a Whole Lot of Firsts,” Washington Post, January 14, 2010.
48 “It’s one place you can go”: Michael Scherer and Nancy Gibbs, “Find Your Space, Find Your Spot, Wear What You Love,” Time, June 1, 2009.
49 “That I can do without”: Holly Yeager, “The Heart and Mind of Michelle Obama,” O: The Oprah Magazine, November 2007.
50 “My sister said”: Rachel L. Swarns, “An In-Law Is Finding Washington to Her Liking,” New York Times, May 4, 2009.
51 There were shopping trips: Eli Saslow, “From the Second City, an Extended First Family,” Washington Post, February 1, 2009.
52 In Washington, after accompanying Malia: Oprah Winfrey, “Oprah Talks to Michelle Obama,” O: The Magazine, April 2009.
53 “has pulled me up”: Michelle Obama, remarks at Mother’s Day tea in White House, May 7, 2010.
54 As Marian found her way: Katherine Skiba, “First Grandma Keeps a Low Profile,” Chicago Tribune, March 8, 2010.
55 “Oh, yeah, people say that”: Susan Sher, interview with author.
56 “I’m pretty sure”: Michelle Obama, remarks at Mother’s Day tea in the White House, May 7, 2010.
57 “she escapes the bubble”: Oprah Winfrey Show, May 2, 2011.
58 “A profound pleasure”: Michael D. Shear, “Obama Tries Diplomatic Outreach to Israeli Public,” Washington Post, July 9, 2010.
59 “They all walk up”: “Harry S. Truman’s Diary Book,” January 6, 1947. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, www.trumanlibrary.org/diary/transcript.htm.
60 “Once, someone on my staff”: Oprah Winfrey, “Oprah Talks to Michelle Obama,” O, The Oprah Magazine, April 2009.
61 “Just give me the rules”: Susan Sher, interview with author.
62 “I never goe”: Peter Henriques, Realistic Visionary: A Portrait of George Washington, p. 101.
63 “There are prison elements to it”: Michelle Obama and Laura Bush, remarks in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, July 2, 2013.
64 “Barack has a 20-car motorcade”: Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, NBC, February 22, 2013.
65 “Perhaps no other restaurant”: Frank Bruni, “Food You’d Almost Rather Hug Than Eat,” New York Times, August 2, 2006.
66 The theater seats they occupied: Randy Kennedy, “The Obamas Sat Here: Theater Seats to Be Auctioned,” NewYorkTimes.com, September 25, 2009.
67 “It’s a derivative job”: Trooper Sanders, interview with author.
68 “bastion of everything”: Jackie Norris, interview with author.
69 “As first lady”: Laura Bush, Spoken from the Heart, p. 288.
70 The “constant back-and-forth”: Ibid.
71 She left sample letters: Anita McBride, interview with author.
72 “This is one of those things”: Ibid.
73 “because she knows”: Jackie Norris, interview with author.
74 “Nothing in my life”: Michelle Obama, speech to the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School, April 2, 2009.
75 “I could do that all day”: Trooper Sanders, interview with author.
76 On her desk: Joanna Sugden, “ ‘She made us all feel that our goals are achievable,’ ” Times (London), January 9, 2012.
77 “You have an unprecedented ability”: Michelle Obama, speech in Mexico City, April 14, 2010.
78 “Don’t just put me on a plane”: Trooper Sanders, interview with author.
13 | BETWEEN POLITICS AND SANITY
1 no one had planted: Michelle Obama, American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America, p. 28.
2 She was in her kitchen: Ibid., p. 24.
3 “about the food we eat”: Ibid., p. 9.
4 “because I wanted this”: Ibid., p. 31.
5 “For little kids”: Ibid., p. 107.
6 Amid energetic photo ops: Jocelyn Frye, interview with author.
7 Between 1995 and 2008: “Too Fat to Fight: Retired Military Leaders Want Junk Food Out of America’s Schools,” www.missionreadiness.org/2010/too-fat-to-fight.
8 Further, many recruits: Michelle Obama, American Grown, p. 174.
9 Obesity and its effects: U.S. Department of Agriculture news release, February 9, 2010.
10 The CDC reported: Mark Fainaru-Wada, “Critical Mass Crisis: Child Obesity,” ESPN.com, March 26, 2009.
11 “It’s done, honey”: Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Childhood Obesity Battle Is Taken Up by First Lady,” New York Times, February 10, 2010.
12 “Our kids don’t choose to make”: Michelle Obama, speech at the White House, February 9, 2010.
13 “a little chubby”: Parents, March 2008.
14 “There were some nights when you got home”: Michelle Obama, speech at the White House, February 9, 2010.
15 Her family started eating: Michelle Obama, American Grown, p. 17.
16 “For the event, Mrs. O”: Mary Tomer, www.Mrs-O.com, March 3, 2009.
17 “She has perhaps even surpassed”: Kate Betts, Everyday Icon: Michelle Obama and the Power of Style, p. 107.
18 “She’s made her point”: Maureen Dowd, “Should Michelle Cover Up?,” New York Times, March 8, 2009.
19 trainers marketed: Rylan Duggan, Totally Toned Arms: Get Michelle Obama Arms in 21 Days (New York: Grand Central Life & Style, 2010).
20 “Never yet”: Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781.
21 “We tried outside”: Katie McCormick Lelyveld, interview with author.
22 “Fashion is what history looks like”: Isabel To
ledo, interview with author.
23 Toledo said Michelle paid: Ibid.
24 The same thing happened: Rheana Murray, “ASOS to Restock Sasha Obama’s Beloved Unicorn Sweater,” New York Daily News, November 21, 2013.
25 “what you wear”: “First-Lady Style,” Ebony, September 2008.
26 “gave women the permission”: Ruben Toledo, interview with author.
27 “helping to liberate”: Betts, p. x
28 “that defines style”: Ibid., p. xiii.
29 “romantic glamor”: Patricia J. Williams, interview with author.
30 After NBC’s Today show: Lisa Orkin Emmanuel, “Michelle Obama’s Shorts Are Latest Style Flap,” Associated Press, August 20, 2009.
31 “It’s not the end of the world”: Ann Strzemien, “Michelle Obama’s Shorts: Does the First Lady Have the Right to Bare Legs?,” Huffington Post, September 13, 2009.
32 Four years later: Michelle Obama, 106 and Park, BET, November 19, 2009.
33 she believed it would send: Katie McCormick Lelyveld, interview with author.
34 “Have you seen someone”: Rachel Dodes, “Naeem Khan on Designing Michelle Obama’s ‘Priceless’ First State Dinner Dress,” Wall Street Journal, November 25, 2009.
35 “an incredible booster”: Steven Kolb, interview with author.
36 “I was totally surprised”: Robin Givhan, “To Showcase Nation’s Arts, First Lady Isn’t Afraid to Spotlight the Unexpected,” Washington Post, July 21, 2010.
37 “I love the notion of having members”: Givhan, “To Showcase Nation’s Arts.”
“If I’m giving those experiences”: Ibid.
38 “We want to lift young people up”: Laura Brown, “Michelle Obama: America’s Got Talent,” Harper’s Bazaar, October 13, 2010.
39 The first couple’s museum: Carol Vogel, “A Bold and Modern White House,” New York Times, October 7, 2009.
40 Also among the borrowings: Holland Carter, “White House Art: Colors from a World of Black and White,” New York Times, October 10, 2009.
41 Laura Bush had showed: Laura Bush, Spoken from the Heart, p. 426. Barbara Bush had shown the window to Hillary Clinton, who showed it to Laura Bush, p. 166.
42 “what’s going on in their lives”: Michelle Obama, American Grown, pp. 213–214.
43 “Even the president”: Yungi de Nies, Good Morning America, ABC, April 15, 2010.