Candidates' wives are supposed to sit cheerfully through their husbands' appearances.

The Michelle Obama that her old friends remember, that people knew in Chicago, she was a really incisive social critic. She knew how to drive an argument home. People liked her both in the workplace and socially because she was so frank.

I would say that Barack Obama has always been a real optimist about what can be accomplished. He believes that government can be used to create systemic, long-term, real change. And the first lady is more of a skeptic.

I've learned that the best political reporters never make predictions!

I don't like corporate diversity workshops.

People who face too many demands - two careers, two children - often scale back somehow. The Obamas scaled up.

It's not that Michelle Obama is trying to conceal her true feelings, it's that she does not want to be a political liability to her husband.