Obama and Michelle

Seeing her dancing with the children while on her current visit to India, I was really enthralled by this First Lady of the United States who seems different from most other First Ladies.

Tempted as I am to write about the simply smashing and verbally impressive Barack H. Obama, I think I’d better save the world of another Obama impressed article. Woman that I am, I prefer to talk about the woman behind the President. The credit of Obama’s success as a man, a politician and now a changeover President goes entirely to him. That is for sure. But, somewhere next to him, maybe, just beside him lies a woman whose contribution to the present US President’s success is by no means less.

Here stands a woman, black by race, an unexpected candidate for First Lady whose colour rather than her academic qualifications or her cool and strong willed nature keeps the public guessing.

‘What does she have in her that makes her qualify for such a high post?’ This question even today runs in most people’s minds. In fact, it has even been a matter of speculation in many debates and television shows during the Presidential campaign. Somehow, just before the President entered the White House people realized that Michelle was no ordinary woman. A lawyer by profession, she has a mind of her own but prefers to not use it to build probable political ambitions quite unlike Hillary Clinton who permitted her professional desires to dominate her personal life. 45-year-old Michelle is the youngest First Lady since Jacqueline Kennedy. People are looking up to her, wanting to see how she projects herself in a world known for its unjust prejudices against colour and race.

Introduced as ‘my rock’ by Barack Obama on stage, she is the woman who keeps him fixed on the goals he has set before his country and himself. Known to call a spade a spade, Michelle has all the attributes that make a successful First Lady. Those hands around Obama are one of a lifetime support and commitment for a man she considers strong enough to lead a troubled nation. Those hands are there to comfort him in troubled times which are bound to be many considering the post he commands.

That smile on her face reveals her pride in her husband’s success. It also gives the world a message – don’t mess with him.  Both have gone through periods when life had not been very just to either of them. Yet today, they stand tall really having a ball telling the world that things will be fine. If we could do it so can you. Obama is stated to have said about his wife, “There’s something about her that projects such honesty and strength. It’s what makes her such an unbelievable professional, and partner, and mother, and wife.”

What more would a woman want from her husband?