"Michelle gets stronger all the time"

Chicago Sun-Times (Jennifer Hunter):

'I don't want my girls to live in a country based on fear'--Barack Obama often says that his wife, Michelle, is smarter than he is, stronger than he is, and gives better speeches than he does.

On a trip to Iowa last week, Michelle was a firebrand, expressing a determined passion for her husband's campaign, talking straight from the heart with eloquence and intelligence.

She told an audience in Council Bluffs that Obama was cautioned not to enter the race for president because there was so much fear: "fear that he might lose; fear that he might get hurt; fear that this might get ugly; fear that this might hurt our family."

But the family decided to say "yes" to the Democratic race partially to confront those fears, said Michelle. "I am tired of being afraid . . . I don't want my girls to live in a country that is based on fear."

At another stop, in Atlantic, Michelle said she travels with her husband in part "to model what it means to have family values," adding "if you can't run your own house, you can't run the White House." She didn't elaborate, but it could be interpreted as a swipe at the Clintons.

No longer is Michelle Obama's rhetoric filled with funny asides about her husband's penchant to drop his socks around the house or his disastrous attempts at housekeeping -- she got criticized for that, unfortunately.

But as the campaign has moved along, her speeches have become stronger, funnier and more personable. She speaks with more emotion than her husband; you feel she is the power propelling him, that she has the psychological mettle, the tough skin, the searing ambition.

My colleague Mary Mitchell asked Michelle how she was able to "snag Barack." But Obama knows he is the lucky one. At least he should know. Michelle is an incredible asset to his campaign.