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April 18, 2008

Michelle Obama says she hopes to be the window to Barack’s soul

By Crystal Garcia

TERRE HAUTE — Michelle Obama hoped she could be the window to Sen. Barack Obama’s soul as she campaigns for him throughout Indiana.

“I’m sort of like a validator,” she said about her campaign role Friday night in a telephone interview with the Tribune-Star. “I’m somebody who can help the voters get a different perspective of Barack.”

She spoke Wednesday in Evansville, Indianapolis and Anderson and in Merrillville on Friday.

“I’m not trying to be his policy-second,” Michelle Obama said. “I think he will be the president of the United States and it’s his views on the policies that matter, but what I can offer is a perspective on who Barack is as a man, how he was raised, how we were raised, what are the values that we bring into our lives that I think are qualities that are critical for, you know, the next commander-in-chief …”

Experience, character and judgment are what she said are the things that would make her husband the right man to be president.

While his opponents have said he doesn’t have a lot of experience, Michelle Obama said that’s where they’re wrong. Just because it’s not Washington insider experience, doesn’t mean it’s not experience, she said.

His experience comes as a community organizer in “some of the toughest places in Chicago,” she said, being a voice for change. But, he’s also a constitutional law scholar and a civil rights attorney.

“… Having an understanding of the Constitution and a respect for it is critical as we sort of look at, you know, rolling back some of the things that the Bush administration has done,” Michelle Obama said.

One thing many people don’t realize when it comes to experience is that with eight years in the Illinois Senate before heading to the federal level, Barack Obama has more experience than his opponent, she said.

During his time as a state legislator, he helped pass ethics reform, improve health care for Illinois children and pass an earned-income tax credit, she said.

“His list of accomplishments as a legislator broadly, speaks to an ability to reach across the political divide,” Michelle Obama said, “because in order to do all that he’s done at the state level, he had to be a uniter. There is no political climate more heated and divided than in Chicago and in Illinois politics, but he’s been very successful prior to going into the U.S. Senate.”

Character, judgment and empathy are all part of Barack Obama’s personality that make him the type of person that doesn’t get frustrated, flustered or make him lash out at an opponent, but one who works to build common ground, she said.

Though she has been talking about these things to Hoosier voters as well as others, she also has been listening. Some of the things Hoosiers have told her aren’t that different from things she’s heard in other parts of the country, Michelle Obama said, which is that people are looking for equity and fairness.

People are seeing jobs leave their community, state and country; losing pensions; having trouble keeping up with the cost of living; and dealing with health care issues, whether it’s not having any or having high deductibles and premiums, she said.

“ … They don’t mind working hard, they don’t even want much,” she said. “People aren’t asking for a whole lot out of life, they just want some fairness and equity and they want to know that in exchange for their hard work that there will be some guarantee of stability at some point in their lives and some ability to pass on some stability to the next generation,” she said. “And they’re finding that that’s just not the case, and I think people are afraid and they’re frustrated and they’re hungry to see our politics be something different than what it is because what it’s been hasn’t led to solutions that are meaningful in their lives.”

Still, the Obamas haven’t let the chaos of campaigning interfere with their children too much. The children see Sen. Obama once a week or 10 days depending on how close a primary is, and they talk to him on the phone every night, Michelle Obama said.

Sacrifices have been made, she said, but it’s nothing different from what they’ve had to do being in politics in general.

“I think we’ve held up nicely and like any parent, we measure the health of our family by the happiness of our kids and they smile and laugh a lot and they know they’re loved,” she said. “And in the end what Barack is doing is intended to help them as well as the millions of other kids out here making sure that other kids in this country are getting the same advantages that are available to our kids.

“And that, over the long term is going to benefit them, in seeing a father who is willing to work hard and sacrifice for others is the kind of values we want to pass on to the girls, and they’re watching this and they’re seeing this in action, so they’re going to learn something from this as well.”

Crystal Garcia can be reached at (812) 231-4271 or crystal.garcia@tribstar.com.

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