Change isn’t emotion. May organisation and strategy. Let me ask you about when you first met your husband. Before you were married, the two of you worked at a law firm together in Chicago. And I read when he first asked you out, you said, ‘No, thank you’ not wanting to mix business with pleasure. Right. But then he invited you somewhere. And your view of him changed dramatically. Why was that? And what happened? Well, we were friends from the start, because I was his advisor. And my job was to welcome him to the firm. I took him out to lunch. And immediately T liked him because he didn't take himself too seriously but he was very bright, had a very interesting background, just a good guy to talk to, You know, you could laugh easily with him. So was, like this is a friend. But then he asked me out on a date. And I thought, ‘Well, my advisee, Hmm, I don't think that looks right: But he invited me to go to one of the churches because he had been 2 community organiser and worked on the far South ‘Side with a group of churches. And he took me to a training session that he was giving. And there were mostly single parent mothers, mostly African Americans on the South Side, ‘And in this traning, he was talking about concepts like the world as it fs and the world as it should be and how the job of ordinary people is to try to narrow the gap between ‘those two ideas. And to see him transform himself from the ‘guy who was a summer associate in a law firm with a suit ‘and then to come into this church basement with folks who were like me, who grew up like me, who were challenged and struggling in ways that I never would, and to be able to take off that suit and tie and became a whole ‘nother person and connect with people in the same way he had connected with folks in that firm, you don't see someone ho can make that transition and do it comfortably and feel ‘comfortable in his own skin and to touch people's hearts in the way that he did, because people connected with his message. And I knew then and there that there's something different about this guy. Because you see people who can live well in corporate America, They can wear that uniform well. They can't make the transition and vice versa. Barack lived comfortably in those two worlds. ‘And it was impressive. And his message was moving. T mean, it touched me. Tt made me think differently about what I am doing with my life, And how am I adding to the notion of getting us to the world as it should be? Am I doing it im my Law firm? You know? So he made me think in ways that I hadn't befor. ‘And you were smitten after that? Tthought ... T could hang out with this guy. Twas impressed. I really was, You've seen the crowds, the way they embrace your husband. Some commentators have used the word ‘messianic. Do you ever wish that the whole thing, the whole movement, wasn't so over the tap for some voters? Barack and I talk about this al the time, We talked about It before the decision to run, because ... when youre realy tuying to make serious change, you don’t want people to get caught up in emotion because change isn't emotion. It's real work and organisation and strategy ~ that’s just the truth of it. I mean, you pull people in with inspiration, but then you have to roll up your sleeves and you've got to make sacrifices and you have got to have structure. ‘And you've gotta, you know, you have ta have support and you have to have interests to move things forward. So we do think about that all the time. T mean, that’s one of the reasons why we try to laugh at ourselves to sort of keep all this excitement to a reasonable level. That's why I teased Barack about putting away the socks and, you know, making sure he's putting away the butter. Its not that, you know, I'm trying to .. emasculate him? Exactly. The point is that Barack, like any leader, fs human. ‘And, you know, our challenge in this country isn't finding the next person who's gonna deliver us from our own evil Because our challenges are us. The challenge that this country faces is how are we as individuals in this society gonna change? What are we ganna do differently? IN THE PUBLIC EYE 23