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

You make real progress when somebody is honest enough to say something that's really uncomfortable.

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

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.

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

You make real progress when somebody is honest enough to say something that's really uncomfortable. Of course when you're a candidate's wife and when you're first lady and the first African-American first lady to boot, that is very, very hard to do.

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