Michelle Obama

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is an attorney who has been married to Barack Obama since 1992. In a February 2007 appearance with her husband on the television program 60 Minutes, Mrs. Obama implied that America's allegedly rampant white racism posed a great physical threat to her husband, who had just announced his candidacy for the 2008 presidential race. Said Mrs. Obama: "As a black man, you know, Barack can get shot going to the gas station."

In a January 2008 speech, Mrs. Obama depicted the U.S. as a nation whose people are inclined to “hold on to [their] own stereotypes and misconceptions,” and to thereby “feel justified in [their] own ignorance.” During a February 18, 2008 speech in Milwaukee on behalf of her husband's presidential campaign, she declared, "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country, and not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change." In March 2008 a New Yorker profile quoted Mrs. Obama saying, in a stump speech she had made in South Carolina, that the United States is "just downright mean" as a nation.

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