Barack is one of the smartest people you will ever encounter who will deign to enter this messy thing called politics.

I can make choices that make me happy, and it will ripple and benefit my kids, my husband, and my physical health. That's hard for women to own; we're not taught to do that.

Don't worry about what candidates have done or said, just vote for the Democrats. Then, afterwards, you can go eat fried chicken.

One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals. And so when I hear about negative and false attacks, I really don't invest any energy in them, because I know who I am.

Some kids have never seen what a real tomato looks like off the vine. They don't know where a cucumber comes from. And that really affects the way they view food. So a garden helps them really get their hands dirty, literally, and understand the whole process of where their food comes from. And I wanted them to see just how challenging and rewarding it is to grow your own food, so that they would better understand what our farmers are doing every single day across this country and have an appreciation for ... that American tradition of growing our own food and feeding ourselves.

Our job is, first and foremost, to make sure our family is whole.

I mean, hope doesn't get actualized in three and a half years. If that were the case, we'd be out of luck as a country.