Michelle Obama, Reluctant No More

By JODI KANTOR
NYT

DENVER — When her husband ran for Congress in 2000, Michelle Obama groused so much about handshaking and fund-raising that Arthur Sussman, then her boss at the University of Chicago, finally asked if she truly could not find a single thing about campaigning to enjoy.

Mrs. Obama thought for a moment. Visiting so many living rooms had given her some new decorating ideas, she allowed.

Eight years later, the once reluctant campaigner is at the center of a multimedia charm offensive that may be the most closely managed spousal rollout in presidential campaign history. On Monday night, Mrs. Obama delivered a prime-time speech at the Democratic National Convention, preceded by an intricately made biographical video, a touch usually afforded to candidates, not their wives.

A relative newcomer to campaigning and the first black woman with a serious shot at first ladyhood, Mrs. Obama is a softer, smoother presence on the trail than she was at the start of the race.

Her basic message — the stirring life story, the full-throated advocacy for her husband, the maternal warmth — has remained constant. But instead of laying down challenges to her audiences, she solicits their concerns and showers them with empathy. She used to appear on news programs; now she gives interviews to “The View” and Ladies’ Home Journal. On Monday night she wore a designer dress, but lately she has more often sported a cheap-chic approach to fashion that might be called the economic crisis look: fewer designer pieces, more $79 Gap sundresses.

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