(US Election 2012: The consorts)
By Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington : She has been dubbed as “The First Lady the World’s Been Waiting For” by Vogue, but the White House insists the First Lady sees herself first and foremost as daughters’ Malia and Sasha’s mom.
Reared in a blue-collar home on Chicago’s South Side, she was an associate at a law firm when she was assigned to mentor a summer intern named Barak Hussein Obama, whom she would marry in 1992 to become his family anchor as he rose from a community worker to President.
A 1985 graduate of Princeton University, she graduated from Harvard Law School in 1988 three years before, but their paths didn’t cross until then.
She caught the eye of a national audience at her husband’s side after he delivered a high-profile speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 and then was elected that year to the US Senate before becoming the president in a historic poll in 2008.
Since then she has brought a new grace and charm to the White House balancing her duties as the First Lady and a wife and mother.
Her charm was on full display when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and wife Gursharan Kaur came calling at the White House for Obama’s first State dinner.
Playing the perfect hostess, she greeted them wearing a sleeveless, gold and cream coloured sheath dress with an overlay of silver and matching shawl by Indian-born designer Naeem Khan. At another event in honour of the Indian guests, Michelle Obama wore a skirt by Rachel Roy.
She is equally at home wearing casually chic dresses as she did in a breezy summer dress from the collection of Indian-origin fashion designer Bibhu Mohapatra to a comic talk show ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’.
Michelle Obama has worked in the offices of Chicago’s mayor and its planning commission, headed a career-training programme for young adults and directed community affairs for the University of Chicago and its medical centre.
As First Lady, Michelle Obama looks forward to continuing her work on the issues close to her heart – supporting military families, helping working women balance career and family, encouraging national service, promoting the arts and arts education, and fostering healthy eating and healthy living for children and families across the country, says the White House.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])