Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Michelle Obama says her overriding role will be to serve as "mom-in-chief" to her and her husband Barack's two young daughters when -- not if -- they enter the White House. ADVERTISEMENT Beyond that, the driven lawyer hoping to be the inaugural black first lady says she intends to restore a work-life balance to hard-pressed Americans and to support military wives of husbands serving extended tours overseas. Interviewed by Ebony magazine, Michelle Obama was in no doubt about life after the November election when voters will decide between her husband and Republican John McCain. "My first job...

In 1828, President John Quincy Adams's reelection campaign reportedly traded on innuendoes that Rachel Jackson had been imperfectly divorced from her first husband. Since her second husband, Andrew Jackson, once killed a man in a duel for the same insult to his wife's honor, Adams was perhaps lucky to lose no more than the presidency to Old Hickory. So, while there are abundant signs that Republicans this year are itching to take the practice to new lows, let's not forget that attacks on first ladies, actual or putative, go back a long way. And for all of the fear in...

Barack Obama’s decision to move his campaign headquarters to Chicago suggests a redesigned, tightened-up election effort aimed at Grand Old Party (GOP) nominee John McCain, with no bitter aftertaste from the Democratic primaries. It will be quite a change, for better or worse.There was a major television roll-out of a supposed new image for Michelle Obama, who shapes up as a controversial, hot GOP target for her goofy remarks about America’s presumed shortcomings. The public relations stunt didn’t work very well: Michelle Obama seemingly called her husband “pathetic” on The View on ABC, not exactly the adoring wife model voters...

Michelle Obama, speaking as her husband may have the Democratic presidential nomination within his grasp, told a Chicago luncheon crowd Friday that she's more convinced than ever he is ready for the office. "I'm particularly proud of my husband, who has handled himself with dignity and with strength and with grace," Obama said of the long campaign, as she addressed about 1,800 people, mostly women, at McCormick Place. Obama, offering brief remarks before featured speaker Valerie Plame Wilson took the podium, hit the main talking points of her husband's campaign. Introduced by U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, the luncheon's sponsor, as...

Now we know why, in her adult life, Michelle Obama has never been proud of America until now. As Byron York reports, her life here is such a struggle. And not because of the demands of the political campaign. As she puts it, "I don't know what I would do, even if we weren't running; I don't know what I would do as a professional without having that kind of support system [provided by her mother who lives nearby]." It is that support system, she confesses, that "keeps me sane." It's easy to see her point. The Obamas, according to...

Michelle Obama, who often has decried "the fear bomb'' that opponents have used against her husband for his middle name -- Barack Hussein Obama -- said in Canton, Ohio, today that it is happening again and shows why it's so important that he wins election as president. "They threw in the obvious, ultimate fear bomb," Obama said today of her husband's 2004 Senate race. "We're even hearing [that] now. … 'When all else fails, be afraid of his name, and what that could stand for, because it's different.'" The senator's wife said that rivals use innuendo to play on fears....

I have a new story today about Michelle Obama's visit to Zanesville, Ohio, where she met with a group of women at a local day care center. According to the U.S. Census, Muskingum County, where Zanesville is located, had a median household income of $37,192 in 2004, below both the Ohio and national averages. Just 12.2 percent of adults in the county have a bachelor's degree or higher, also well below the state and national averages. About 20 percent don't have a high school degree. Nevertheless, Mrs. Obama urged them to foreswear lucrative professions like corporate law or hedge fund...