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Global
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Malia and Sasha Obama, 13 and 10, are four years older than they were during their father’s first presidential campaign, which means they’ll likely be even more aware of what is said about their dad – and their mom – in what is expected to be one of the nastiest campaigns in recent memory. That’s where mom comes in – as "Reassurer in Chief."
"My job right now is to reassure them because the question for a child in a campaign is ‘What happens to my life?" first lady Michelle Obama said, after I asked her how she was getting the girls ready for her husband’s re-election push. "What we had to do when we were first running was well, what if we win, what if we lose, because that’s what they’re thinking. So I just try to play out both sides of the scenario and make both sides seem great."
Mrs. Obama said her message to the girls is they can campaign if they want and steer clear of it if that’s what they prefer, but she thinks they’ll likely choose the former. "They actually like campaigning because when they were younger, when we were first running," she recounted, "young campaign workers…took them out for ice cream everywhere." On one occasion she learned the girls actually had ice cream four times in one day! "So Sasha is like, 'I love campaigning, I am ready to go,' " the first lady said with a chuckle.
"They are excited about (the campaign)," she said, "because they know their lives are going to be fine either way."
Mrs. Obama’s comments came during a fascinating 30-minute-plus roundtable with iVillage and correspondents from four other organizations traveling with the first lady during her second anniversary tour for Let’s Move. Ironically, it was also five years to the day from when her husband announced his bid for the presidency in 2007.
The first lady spoke about everything from the role she’ll play on the campaign to coping with the criticism she has faced. Here are some highlights:
On how much time she’ll devote to campaigning:
"My approach to campaigning is this is the time that I have to give to the campaign and whatever you do with that time is up to you," she said, referring to the president’s re-election team. "But when it’s over, don’t even look at me. No calls, no anything. We got through the first campaign that way … because what I found is if you don’t put the kids first, then everything just creeps in and before you know it, I am flying everywhere and not at anything for (Malia and Sasha)."
On putting Malia and Sasha first:
"They don’t have schedules, that’s the one thing I use to tell (my staff), my children don’t have schedulers… They don’t have those advocates so we have to put them first so they don’t feel they have to advocate for their parents’ time."
On whether she’s fired up for the campaign:
"I am absolutely fired up, but I always have to have balance because I am a mother. So when I am out there, I am fired up, but when I’m not, I have to be Malia and Sasha’s mom and that can’t be a fired up campaigner… They’re like, 'Where were you?'… But no, I am incredibly enthusiastic about talking to the country about the accomplishments of this administration."
On why she believes her husband deserves a second term:
"I think this president has done a phenomenal job and not just under difficult circumstances, but I said (this) when I was asked by you before, Barack Obama is going to be one of the best presidents we’ve ever had and I believe we’re moving in that direction. It’s been a tough road, a tough road to hoe, but I want him to be my president for another four years as a citizen so I’m going to do what I need to do, but Malia and Sasha always come first and that is something Barack and I agree on. If it comes down to the campaign versus them, they will win every time."
On how her husband’s the optimist, she’s the pessimist:
"As I describe my husband, he is a natural optimist. I think that most leaders are natural optimists, you have to be … I think the vast majority of people are natural pessimists and I am like the common citizen … It’s like, we’re losing, the sky is falling … He’s like, 'Just calm down,' and that’s what I need… and that’s the mark of a leader… And in a very abbreviated way, that’s what I am telling our supporters. It’s like it’s natural for us to get worried, but the truth is you’ve got a president who sees far beyond what most of us see. We’ve got to have faith in that."
On her husband telling Today the hardest part of being president is seeing the first lady thrown into the "political realm":
"I have gotten a bit better about it, I’ve slide a bit over to the optimist side of things," she said, pointing to the reaction she gets from every day Americans every time she travels around the country. "I tend to rely on the experience and that’s always good… so that’s what I take as whatever validation I need to keep going so it bothers me less."
On making the White House home:
"We try to make the second and third floors of the White House home, which means it’s not political, it’s not contentious … It’s home. And I have been pleasantly surprised we’ve been able to do that. That was, if I had a fear coming in, it was the fear that I couldn’t give my children that in their formative years; that their world would be so other for them and so foreign given what they're used to, that they'd be different kids. And we've been blessed that they haven't lost that sense of home."
On her five year journey (her husband announced his candidacy exactly five years ago today):
"I've gotten to see this country up close over the course of campaigning and being the first lady and traveling, and people in this country are decent," she said. "And I think that that's a privilege that we have in our roles that most Americans don't."
"When you spend your life doing that, you really come to love this country and to know what the potential is because deep down inside, people want the same thing out of life. They really do," she added.
Kelly Wallace is Chief Correspondent of iVillage and is one of five reporters – and the only sole digital reporter – traveling with the first lady to Iowa, Arkansas, Texas and Florida. Follow Kelly’s live blog here and follow Kelly on Twitter here.
