Becoming

When Michelle was in first grade, a boy in her class punched her in the face one day, for no reason. The boy got a talking to, and adults discussed the situation. Michelle’s mother tells her, “that boy was just scared and angry about things that had nothing to do with you […] He’s dealing with a whole lot of problems of his own.”

Michelle spends a lot of 2008 trying to dodge the same kinds of punches. Barack had spent the winter and spring of 2008 battling over every state with Hillary Clinton. In June, Clinton acknowledged that she lacked the delegate count to win. And so, in July, Barack begins courting not only Democratic voters but the entire country. The race now between him and Republican Senator John McCain. On the Fourth of July (which is also Malia’s tenth birthday), the Obamas visit Butte, Montana, a state which had gone to George W. Bush but which had elected a Democratic governor.

When they arrive, Michelle is heartened by signs along Main Street reading “Happy Birthday, Malia!” People are kind to Malia and Sasha and respectful toward Michelle and Barack, even though many admit that voting for a Democrat would be a “crazy departure from tradition” for them. The family attends a campaign picnic together.

Michelle realizes how her life has slowly changed around her: she’s never alone, people start getting things for her at the store rather than letting her get it herself. If she wants to speak to Barack, she has to ask a young staffer. Before the afternoon in Butte ends, the family does a TV interview together. The innocent comments that Sasha and Malia make immediately endear them to people, but Michelle and Barack instantly regret pushing them even more into the public eye than they already were.

Michelle understands living in the public eye already. Oprah sends her encouraging texts. Stevie Wonder shows up to play at campaign events and jokes with her and Barack. But at the same time, her every action or word is subject to intense scrutiny and criticism. Michelle learns this when she makes a speech in Milwaukee in early 2008. Afterward, she learns that the context has been stripped away from a quote in which she says, “for the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m really proud of my country.”

People immediately pounce on these words, saying that Michelle is not a patriot. When Michelle gets home and calls Barack, he tells her not to worry. She’s only getting this criticism because people see how big a force she’s become in the campaign. He tells her he loves her and assures her that it’ll blow over. In some ways, it does, as Barack wins the Wisconsin primary by a good margin, but Cindy McCain immediately takes a shot at Michelle by saying that she’s proud of her country at a rally.

Michelle understands that “a pernicious seed has been planted”: the idea that she is hostile and lacks the expected level of grace of other political wives. The criticism of her and the rumors around Barack always carry “less-than-subtle messaging about race, meant to stir up the deepest and ugliest kind of fear.” More ghosts from the past start to surface, like cherry-picked clips of Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s sermons, all of which show resentment towards white people, or Michelle’s senior thesis at Princeton, which is treated like “some secret black-power manifesto” by conservative media.

Michelle continues to speak about optimism and unity, but the conservative outlets continue their rage against Barack. A photo of Barack wearing a turban and Somali clothing on a senate visit revives rumors of his being Muslim. Another unfounded theory surfaces that Barack was born in Kenya and not Hawaii, making him ineligible to become president.

For Michelle, she feels that there is some different version of her wreaking havoc in the news: “a too-tall, too-forceful, ready-to-emasculate Godzilla of a political wife named Michelle Obama.” Even friends call her with worry when they hear rumors that a videotape exists of Michelle referring to white people as “whitey.” She explains that she feels that she can’t win: that the stereotype of the “angry black woman” being thrust upon her is a terrible catch-22 from which she cannot escape.

Michelle goes to Barack, upset and feeling overwhelmed by the negative criticism that often follows her media appearances. She wants to be supportive, but doesn’t want to hurt the campaign. He assures her that she’s much more of an asset than a liability, and he gets David Axelrod and Valerie to coach Michelle on her body language and expressions so that she doesn’t seem too serious or severe.

Michelle explains that, even though Hillary Clinton was Barack’s primary opponent, she sees that Clinton has her own difficulty with pundits making gendered critiques about her. She is called “domineering, a nag, a bitch,” with a “screechy” voice and a “cackle” for a laugh. Michelle admires her ability to fight the misogyny.

And so, in the final months of the campaign, Michelle adds a scheduler/personal aide, and a communications specialist who counsels her to talk about the things she loves and not to shy away from her inclination towards humor. Michelle gains a new ease this way, beginning to enjoy herself and feeling more and more optimistic as she continues to meet other hopeful Americans.

At the Democratic National Convention, Michelle gives a seventeen minute speech in front of twenty thousand people. She speaks of her father, her family, and Barack’s “noble heart.” When she finishes, people applaud and applaud, and she hopes that perhaps she’s finally done something to change people’s perception of her.

But, Michelle admits, she still lives for the unrehearsed in-between moments when nobody is performing. She flashes back to Butte, Montana, on Malia’s birthday, worrying that she and Barack had come up short in terms of celebrations. They feel like they haven’t made the day festive or enough about their daughter. But Malia sees it differently—she had spent the day outdoors with Sasha, surrounded by people that love her. She had seen a parade, and she now had a cake. She declares it, “the best birthday ever,” and Michelle and Barack start to tear up.