Interpreting anyone's marriage - a neighbor's, let alone the president's - is extremely difficult.

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

Michelle Obama kind of has two identities. In private, she is actually often much more vehement than her husband about Republican opposition. It was very hard to get sources to put it on the record, but they would describe the way she talked about Republicans and opposition in private. And, you know, her remarks were scorching. The level of heat that she can give off in these conversations is often much greater than what Barack Obama does.

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.

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

Michelle Obama is somebody who really wants to take the high road.

Michelle Obama has mostly stuck to pretty anodyne topics. She's anti-childhood obesity, she's pro-veteran.