Attend a Debate Watch Party This Friday, September 26th

http://my.barackobama.com/debate

On September 26th, Barack Obama and John McCain will have their first debate of the election. Whether you host or attend a party, this is an important moment -- and a great opportunity to bring people together, talk about the issues, and build this movement for change. Check out our Host Guide to learn more and set up an event today, or search for one to attend in your area.

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Michelle on Debate Watch Parties

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zfb8fcyTnXg

2:06

From: BarackObamadotcom

Added: September 21, 2008

Michelle Obama asks supporters to attend Debate Watch Parties for the first presidential debate on Friday, Sept. 26th at 9pm EDT. Visit my.barackobama.com/debate and sign up to attend or host a party in your community.

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Attending or hosting a Debate Watch Party is a great way to connect with folks in your community and share Barack's message of change. If you've never attended a house party before, don't worry. With just six weeks left before Election Day, November 4th, this important first debate is the perfect time to get involved. And if you want to host an event, no experience is required. Our host guide will help you put together a successful event, walking you through each step and providing all the resources you need.

Use our zip code search on the right [of link below] to find a Debate Watch Party in your community or create an event of your own.

http://my.barackobama.com/debate

Host or Attend a Debate Watch Party This Friday, September 26th

http://my.barackobama.com/debate

On September 26th, Barack Obama and John McCain will have their first debate of the election. Whether you host or attend a party, this is an important moment -- and a great opportunity to bring people together, talk about the issues, and build this movement for change. Check out our Host Guide to learn more and set up an event today, or search for one to attend in your area.

---

Michelle on Debate Watch Parties

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zfb8fcyTnXg

2:06

From: BarackObamadotcom

Added: September 21, 2008

Michelle Obama asks supporters to attend or host Debate Watch Parties for the first presidential debate on Friday, Sept. 26th at 9pm EST. Visit my.barackobama.com/debate and sign up to attend or host a party in your community.

---

Attending or hosting a Debate Watch Party is a great way to connect with folks in your community and share Barack's message of change. If you've never attended a house party before, don't worry. With just six weeks left before Election Day, November 4th, this important first debate is the perfect time to get involved. And if you want to host an event, no experience is required. Our host guide will help you put together a successful event, walking you through each step and providing all the resources you need.

Use our zip code search on the right [of link below] to find a Debate Watch Party in your community or create an event of your own.

http://my.barackobama.com/debate

The wife of Democratic Candidate Senator Barack Obama, Michelle Obama is her own success story. Listed in 2006 among "25 of the World's Most Inspiring Women" by Essence magazine, she followed up in 2007 with Vanity Fair magazine nominating her as one of the "Worlds Ten Best Dressed People."

Also in 2007, Michelle Obama entered "The Harvard 100" ranking 58th on a list of the prior year's most influential Harvard alumni; her husband Barack was ranked fourth. She also keeps good company, having made two campaign appearances with Oprah Winfrey (at the time of writing this). Michelle Obama was born on 17 January, 1964 in Chicago Illinois, her mother Marian a former secretary, and her father Fraser Robinson, a city water plant employee and Democratic precinct captain. Michelle was raised in a conventional home, along with her brother Craig, who is 16 months older.

It's true.  I just read this in Haaretz, an Israeli news media outlet: 

While Barack Obama has struggled to capture the Jewish vote, it turns out that one of his wife's cousins is the country's most prominent black rabbi - a fact that has gone largely unnoticed.

Michelle Obama, wife of the Democratic presidential nominee, and Rabbi Capers Funnye, spiritual leader of a mostly black synagogue on Chicago's South Side, are first cousins once removed. Funnye's mother, Verdelle Robinson Funnye (born Verdelle Robinson) and Michelle Obama's paternal grandfather, Frasier Robinson Jr., were brother and sister.

Funnye (pronounced fuh-NAY) is chief rabbi at the Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in southwest Chicago. He is well-known in Jewish circles for acting as a bridge between mainstream Jewry and the much smaller, and largely separate, world of black Jewish congregations, sometimes known as black Hebrews or Israelites. He has often urged the larger Jewish community to be more accepting of Jews who are not white.

This vignette touched my heart, because it has such relevant symbolism.

 In the clips last night, Michelle Obama spoke of finally giving in to Barack's request for a date. She had been refusing his advances because she was very proper in the top law firm of Sidley & Austin, where she was a full fledged attorney and Barack was just a summer intern. Barack surprised Michelle when he took her, not to a fancy restaurant, but  to a church basement where he gave a speech to steelworkers who were laid off when the local steel mill closed.

 Michelle said Barack riveted everyone in the basement with a magnificent speech about how America actually was, and how America should be.

The clip showed a picture of the burly white steelworkers raptly listening to the young African American orator, demonstrating that the races were cooperating even back then.

I grew up in the same neighborhood as Michelle Robinson Obama, actually in between her house  and Rev. Wright's church. I personally knew many of the steelworkers who forever lost high paying jobs to the slave labor wages of Indian and Chinese steelmills, and feel quite strongly about fair trade instead of free trade.

Those hard working men never, ever got jobs with pay remotely near what they earned in the mill, for very hard work.

Micehlle felt the same thing I did, and said that speech in the church basement made it all over, the end! She was in love with Barack.

A symbolic lesson for us all, united.

Michelle Obama just sent this e-mail;

DeeAnna --

My mom, the girls, and I left home in Chicago and got to Denver yesterday. What a beautiful city!

The convention started this morning, and everyone here is getting ready for the big week.

All the work you've done is at the heart of what's happening here, and our team filmed a short video to give you a look behind the scenes at the convention center.

Take a minute to check out the video and share it with your friends:

This week, folks from across the country will get to know Barack and our family a little better. Tonight I'm giving a speech at the convention, and I'm planning to share a few stories about the Barack I know -- the husband, the father, and the man who shares my dreams for our girls, for this country, and for our future.

Before my speech, we're also going to show a video introducing our family to families across the country. Make sure to turn on your TV at 10:30 p.m. EDT (8:30 p.m. MDT) to see it, or you can watch it at www.BarackObama.com.

This is such an important moment, and I hope you'll join me by tuning into the convention tonight and all week long.

Thanks,

Michelle 

Michelle Obama Is Officially, My Hero

PHOTO: Obama Campaign -FlickrAcct-

There's More Actually..........

Interesting but I think the catharsis happened tonight. There were a lot of women in the crowd with tears in their eyes.  I wouldn't want to be Bill, Hillary, Joe or Obama and have to follow Michelle and Ted Kennedy's speeches tonight.  I think they already elicited the catharsis.

SOURCE: Huffington Post

SNIP:

His own mother, she said at the beginning of her remarks, was "very young and very single when she had him." And, Obama added, he has observed his wife's attempts to reconcile motherhood with her career aspirations.

"He sees me, his wife, who struggles every day with that guilt that we all hold deep in our hearts as women," she said. "That guilt that you don't have the choice to stay home, and even if you do, you feel guilty."

"He has seen me struggle with this my entire life," she added. "Trust me, Barack understands the struggles of women."

SOURCE: OFA Blog HQ

By Amanda Scott - Jul 7th, 2008 at 6:38 pm EDT

As this November's presidential election draws closer, many people want to know more about Michelle Obama. Who is this mother of two, who rose from the rough South Side of Chicago to become a force in her own right during this crucial run for the White House? And what drives her? One way to figure this out is to ask the people who have known her the longest, her family and friends.

They seem to be held in awe.

Close friend and businesswoman Valerie Jarrett says, "I don't think I've ever met anybody quite like Michelle."

"She's very genuine," says friend and fellow parent Yvonne Dalia, while her college roommate describes her as "your best girlfriend."

And her brother says simply, "She's good at what she's good at."

…One could call the "American woman's message" that of a smart, ambitious woman, who juggles family, friends and a career. In this case, the American woman's husband just happens to be running for president.

You can watch the full interview here.  

Source:  Michelle Obama Watch.com

SNIP:

The Michelle Obama Watch was dicussed in this article as a repository for all things Michelle in the media. It highlighted the fact that our blog contains a huge cross-sections of visitors: black, white, gay, straight, conservative, liberal, etc. However, we often forget that even that there are chaffing factions even among progressives; this issue was painfully brought to light during the Democratic primaries.

Michelle Obama is in a unique position because she brings both racial and feminist issues to a head. Her very existance prompts discussion about sexism in the media, derrogatory racial remarks, etc.

Source: Associated Press

"Barack believes that we must fight for the world as it should be, a world where together we work to reverse discriminatory laws," she said at a Manhattan fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee's Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council.

Michelle Obama also drew a connection between the struggles for gay rights and civil rights.

"We are all only here because of those who marched and bled and died, from Selma to Stonewall, in the pursuit of a more perfect union," she said at the event, held days before the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots between gays and New York police, and the city's annual gay pride parade.

"The world as it is should be one that rejects discrimination of all kinds," she said.

Touting her husband's record pushing for workplace discrimination legislation as an Illinois state senator and his support of civil unions, Obama noted her husband also had brought a call for equality to conservative groups, telling churchgoers they need to combat homophobia in the black community.

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) – Michelle Obama says the country is closer than it's ever been to truly supporting working families, in large part because of her husband's former rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The wife of Sen. Barack Obama is campaigning in New Hampshire Thursday with former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, who is running for U.S. Senate. Her visit comes a day before her husband returns to New Hampshire with Clinton for their first joint appearance since he clinched the Democratic presidential nomination.

Michelle Obama said because of Clinton's work the issues important to women and working families are front and center.

She said her husband will work to expand sick time and paid family leave, help parents afford child care and make sure women get equal pay.

SOURCE: CNN's Political Ticker

Text Source: OFA

.

Michelle was born on January 17, 1964, to Marian and Fraser Robinson on Chicago's South Side and graduated from Whitney M. Young Magnet High School in Chicago's West Loop. After high school Michelle went on to Princeton University where in 1985 she graduated with a B.A. in sociology and a minor in African American studies. After college, Michelle continued her education at Harvard Law School, where she earned her degree in 1988.

For three years after law school, Michelle worked as an associate in the area of marketing and intellectual property at Chicago law firm Sidley and Austin, where she met Barack Obama. She left the corporate law world in 1991 to pursue a career in public service, serving as an assistant to the mayor and then as the assistant commissioner of planning and development for the City of Chicago.

In 1993, she became the founding executive director of Public Allies - Chicago, a leadership training program that received AmeriCorps National Service funding and helped young adults develop skills for future careers in the public sector.

Michelle began her involvement with the University of Chicago in 1996. As associate dean of student services, she developed the University's first community service program. Michelle also served as executive director of community and external affairs until 2005, when she was appointed vice president of community and external affairs at the University of Chicago Medical Center. She also managed the business diversity program.

Michelle has fostered the University of Chicago's relationship with the surrounding community and developed the diversity program, making them both integral parts of the Medical Center's mission.

Barack, Michelle and their two daughters Malia, 9, and Sasha, 7, live on the South Side of Chicago.

Source:Political Intellegence