Michelle Obama Reminds Us What an Involved First Lady Sounds Like

By Clover Hope  |  April 28, 2017 | 3:55pm
Politics

After taking a few months off to relax and probably talk shit in private about the mess America has gotten itself into, Michelle Obama returned to the public eye for a speaking engagement in Orlando this week.

Days after her husband Barack reemerged from tanning for an event in Chicago, Michelle Obama brought a little sunshine in peoples’ lives, participating in a Q&A at the American Institute of Architects conference on Thursday. Most of what she said focused on post-White House public service goals, which includes an ongoing education initiative for young girls and promoting equality. “If you have leverage, you have to push for the women who don’t,” she said, adding, “The plight of women and girls is real. The struggles are real.”

Another real struggle is me having adjust to post-Obama life. Michelle subtly acknowledged this reality when describing her feelings on Inauguration Day: “I didn’t want to have tears in my eyes because people would swear I was crying because of the new president.”

The Orlando Sentinel reports:

Obama said she and her family were enjoying the freedoms of post-White House life, such as being able to open their windows at night, travel without a motorcade and answer their own front door.
“You can imagine our two dogs, Bo and Sunny, who had never heard a doorbell in their life,” she said.

People are still asking her if she’ll run for president someday and the answer is still no, as if she hasn’t said it a dozen times before.

“It’s all well and good until you start running, and then the knives come out,” she said at the conference. “Politics is tough, and it’s hard on a family…I wouldn’t ask my children to do this again because, when you run for higher office, it’s not just you, it’s your whole family. Plus, there’s just so much more we can do outside of the office, because we won’t have the burden of political baggage.” Read more from her talk here.

 
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