Michelle Obama

So far on her trip to Europe, Michelle Obama has hugged the queen of England, double cheek-kissed the glamorous first lady of France and electrified the celebrity-obsessed tabloids. When she talked to students at a school for underprivileged girls in London, though, her message was about her working-class childhood and her success gained through strong values and hard work in school.

Just as Barack Obama turned the page on American history in Washington on Tuesday, Michelle Obama turned the page on American fashion and reaffirmed her commitment to being a new kind of style leader. The lemongrass wool lace ensemble she wore for the swearing-in wasn't designed by one of the aging custodians of the Seventh Avenue Establishment -- Donna Karan or Calvin Klein. It was by Isabel Toledo, a Cuban American whom nobody knows but everyone should.

President Obama is preparing to appoint a policy advisor to his senior White House staff to work with Native American tribes on issues central to their well-being and prosperity, First Lady Michelle Obama said Monday on a visit to the Interior Department. The advisor would work with tribes and across the government on issues such as sovereignty, healthcare and education, Obama said. Native Americans have "a wonderful partner in the White House right now," the first lady said.

Before the telephone rang at 10:03 Saturday morning in her Philadelphia home, Carol Ann Campbell was inclined to use her position as a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention to make Hillary Rodham Clinton the party's presidential nominee. By the time she hung up, Campbell had been persuaded to throw her support to Barack Obama. On the other end of the line was Michelle Obama, 44, the Illinois senator's wife. In that 1-hour, 27-minute call, the would-be first lady made the sale.

Michelle Obama found herself at the center of a political tempest Tuesday after telling a Wisconsin audience while campaigning for husband Barack Obama that "for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country." Conservatives pounced. On his blog, Commentary magazine Editor John Podhoretz wrote: "Can it really be there has not been a moment . . . when she felt proud of her country?

It is one of Barack Obama's most reliable laugh lines. At the close of his stump speech, he often says, "I am reminded by every day of my life -- if not by events, then by my wife -- that I am not a perfect man." These days, after catching grief for calling her husband "snore-y and stinky" and speaking about his bad habits in the manner of a loving but exasperated wife, Michelle Obama only sings his praises.

I'm not going to pretend I knew what Michelle Obama meant when, at a rally in Milwaukee, she said that "for the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country." She later said she meant she was proud of people "rolling up their sleeves" and "trying to figure this out," which I take to mean she wasn't so sure either.

Barack Obama and friends would like to believe that a little steam is beginning to come out of the furor surrounding the explosive views of the candidate's onetime pastor and spiritual advisor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Appearing on NBC's "Today" show Thursday, Obama defended his handling of the controversy over Wright -- who had suggested the U.S. government could have brought on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and planted the AIDS virus among African Americans.

The Democratic presidential nomination contest -- relegated to almost a sideshow in recent days as fireworks intensified between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain -- is all but certain to pass an important milestone today as voters head to the polls in Kentucky and Oregon. By day's end, Obama expects to have locked up a majority of the pledged delegates to the party's national convention.

Not long after Barack Obama clinched the Democratic presidential nomination and topped it off with a rousing speech Tuesday night in a St. Paul, Minn., sports arena, Michael Lawson popped open a bottle of champagne and savored the moment with a group of friends at his home in Hancock Park. "I got goose bumps -- a great speech," he said. "Now there's time to bask a little before the next phase . . . this is like round 12 of a 15-round match."