She’s stunning. She’s sassy.She’s smart. She’s Michelle Obama, the sophisticated wife of presumptive presidential candidate, Barack Obama and the talk of the town wherever she goes. Who is this stylish fashion plate who is often likened to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, a trendsetter during her days in residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Well, when this astute Harvard-educated lawyer appeared recently on the much-watched morning television talk show The View, she wowed ’em and left little room for criticism.
By now the name rolls easily off the tongue, as though we have heard and known it all of our lives—Barack Obama. Only four short years ago it was an often mangled tongue twister, now it is a name synonymous with hope, change and belief in the idea that each of us has something wonderful to contribute to the world if only we are motivated to do so. Not since the salad days of John F. Kennedy and later Bill Clinton, have so many Americans openly spoken of optimism for the future of our country at the thought of a presidential candidate. But what does it all mean?
There’s not a day that goes by that don’t thank God that I have the honor of representing my community of Harlem. Walking down the streets, I can’t help but feel the sense of history that stretches back 350 years. It’s a place that has housed and enamored several titans of the American tradition—from George Washington and Alexander Hamilton all the way to James Baldwin and Duke Ellington. A place full of cultural institutions like the Apollo Theatre, the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Schomberg Center, that on a daily basis remind the world of our nation’s diversity and the beautiful richness of African-American life.
She’s stunning. She’s sassy.She’s smart. She’s Michelle Obama, the sophisticated wife of presumptive presidential candidate, Barack Obama and the talk of the town wherever she goes. Who is this stylish fashion plate who is often likened to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, a trendsetter during her days in residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Well, when this astute Harvard-educated lawyer appeared recently on the much-watched morning television talk show The View, she wowed ’em and left little room for criticism. 
By now the name rolls easily off the tongue, as though we have heard and known it all of our lives—Barack Obama. Only four short years ago it was an often mangled tongue twister, now it is a name synonymous with hope, change and belief in the idea that each of us has something wonderful to contribute to the world if only we are motivated to do so. Not since the salad days of John F. Kennedy and later Bill Clinton, have so many Americans openly spoken of optimism for the future of our country at the thought of a presidential candidate. But what does it all mean? 
