Michelle Obama Stumps in Philadelphia Suburbs [View All]

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Michelle Obama Stumps in Philadelphia Suburbs

By Katharine Q. Seelye


Michelle Obama Stumps in Philly SuburbsMichelle Obama in Ardmor, Pa. (Photo: Jessica Kourkounis for The New York Times)


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Mrs. Obama described herself as a “110-percenter,” which is how much she said she gives of herself to both her family and her job, which means she always feels “like I’m failing.” She said that she grew up thinking she could “have it all,” but “I’m coming to be convinced that it’s not attainable, at least not now, at least not at 110 percent.”

Asked what her husband says when they discuss these issues, Mrs. Obama said he wanted to build a new majority in Congress because without it, no Democratic plan for health care or anything else could pass.

“His ability to win in all kinds of states is something we haven’t seen in a while,” she added, noting that he was attracting both independents and moderate Republicans, of whom there are many in this area. “Welcome, welcome,” she said to those voters. She said her husband’s candidacy was “the first time in a while that people have felt energized, and that energy isn’t just fluff.”

She also touched on his desire to end the war in Iraq, but in a nod to Mrs. Clinton, who has also vowed to end it, she said, “There are many candidates who understand we need to bring this war to a close.”

Asked what it’s like when your husband comes home and says he’s running for president, Mrs. Obama, who was initially skeptical of the whole idea, said: “The first reaction is ‘You’re kidding.’ Then you keep saying that for a while and hope that he goes away.” Everyone laughed.

But she said he would be a good president because he wants to “heal” the country. She described him as someone who had the gift of connecting with people and is, at heart, a “policy wonk.”

“He reads everything, is a strong manager, will bring in the best and the brightest and doesn’t have his ego in play, and what I said when I said yes is, this would be the man I would want to be leading us _ if I weren’t married to him,” she said, again to laughter. “The problem is that he is my husband.” But, she said, “you have to give it a shot because this could be the guy who could help move us in a different direction.”

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http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/michelle-obama-stumps-in-philly-suburbs/