Tough, funny, direct – but not angry

“Angry” is not one of the words friends or acquaintances met on the campaign trail use to describe Michelle Obama.

Funny, smart, tall (definitely tall), loyal, tough — all of those. Even Midwestern.

{mosads}But the wife of the Democratic presidential nominee, they insist, is not the “angry black woman” caricature that grew out of her infamous flub when she told an audience in Wisconsin that this was the first time in her adult life that she was really proud of her country.

“She is incredibly proud of this country, certainly of our city and where she is from. That’s been completely misconstrued,” said Bethann Hester, who worked with Obama at a non-profit group in Chicago.

The tradition of critical coverage of first ladies and would-be first ladies is as old as the country itself. Abigail Adams’s forceful personality led critics to dub her “Her Majesty,” and it wasn’t a compliment.

But the stakes could be especially high for Obama, who could become the first black first lady. Before Barack, Hillary or Bill, convention watchers will hear from Michelle, who is taking the lead in introducing an expected family-themed convention that’s designed to reassure voters that the Obamas aren’t unlike them.

Women she met in Iowa say Michelle Obama made such a good impression with them that it influenced their decision to vote for her husband. But Obama has had trouble reaching the broader electorate. New York Times/CBS polls released in July found that only 24 percent of white voters hold a favorable view of her, compared to 58 percent of black voters.

After the Wisconsin speech, Obama was pilloried on blogs and battered on cable television. National Review ran a cover with the headline “Mrs. Grievance.” Her rival for first lady, Cindy McCain, added a line stressing her own love of country to her own speeches.

Obama’s friends and her campaign staff say that the criticism has not affected her behavior. They say she has continued to stress what she has always stressed: the hardships that her family endured to send her and her older brother to good schools are even harder now for working families.

“If I tried to be something different or model someone, I would get confused, and it would be bad,” Obama quipped to the Chicago Tribune about her approach to campaigning in Iowa, the state that launched her husband’s candidacy.

Obama’s campaign activity is limited to two or three day trips a week, according to spokeswoman Katie McCormick Lelyveld. When she is on the trail, she usually is part of roundtables that examine the problems faced by working families, and military working families in particular.

Her speeches at the events stress her biography and gratitude, but also concern that the American dream is slipping away from folks, colored by anecdotes from the people she’s met while campaigning.

“In my life, I know I’ve been blessed by all I’ve been given. This is a country that allowed my father to provide for his family on a single salary as a shift worker on the South Side of Chicago, and still send my brother and me to college,” Obama said during an Aug. 6 speech before a roundtable discussion with military spouses in Norfolk, Va.

Obama’s father, Fraser Robinson, was a pump operator for the Chicago water department, and according to the campaign, hardly missed a day of work despite suffering from multiple sclerosis.

Obama followed her brother Craig to Princeton, and then went to Harvard Law School.

Verna Williams met Obama there. At 5-foot-11, Obama immediately stood out.

“She was a lot like she is today,” said Williams, now a law professor at the University of Cincinnati. “She definitely stood out. She was really tall, really smart, funny, fun to be with. …”

At Harvard, Obama worked at the Legal Aid Bureau, which helps low-income people with legal issues.

“She was mindful of her background and the fact that she had a lot of great opportunities that other black people didn’t have,” Williams said. “She’s always been cognizant of the need to give back.”

After graduation, Obama returned to Chicago to work at the law firm Sidley & Austin. There she met Barack Obama, then a summer intern who had just finished his first year of law school.

But she didn’t mesh with the job. According to her biography, corporate law “was not her calling.”

Obama’s desire to do public service grew after her father died, and she moved to City Hall, where she eventually became the assistant commissioner of planning and development.

She then became the founding director of Public Allies, a mentoring program for young adults interested in public service.

Hester was in the first class of Public Allies, which was a model for the AmeriCorps program. Hester, who later became program director, described Obama as an “amazing leader.”

“She can be tough. It’s tough love. It’s about: you have to show up,” Hester said. “But she’s not angry. She’s all about accountability. What’s your plan? Are you being responsive? Is it inclusive?”

Hester said Obama pressed the class to make sure they were working to meet the needs of their community. So if someone wanted to press environmental justice as a cause but the community was more interested in education, education should be the priority.

As president of the Iowa Student Education Association, Linda Nelson got to see Obama up close last summer when Obama spoke to an ISEA group.

“Gee, I thought this woman can be our next-door neighbor,” said Nelson, a native of Sioux City, Iowa, which has an African American population of under 2.5 percent.

“Her story was our own story, what we try to instill in students every day. … Be responsible and you can achieve your goals.”

“People here are a little more touchy-feely. … She just had a Midwestern feel, I guess,” said Lorie Hohneke, who was an undecided voter until she took her daughter to a pre-caucus roundtable event hosted by the candidate’s wife in Muscatine, Iowa.

In Iowa, Obama was nicknamed “The Closer” for her ability to seal the deal with voters like Hohneke. But that was before the onslaught of criticism.

Friends say Obama hasn’t been affected by the negative coverage. Williams, her friend from law school, says Obama told her a story of when her daughter, Malia, came downstairs crying because of what a friend had said to her.

“Michelle said, ‘She’s up there happy, and you’re down here crying. You can’t let her ruin your day.’ I thought, that’s symbolic,” she said.

Added Hester: “She’s tough. She can take it and still stay focused on the task at hand. It’s an incredible opportunity to be invited into people’s homes, their churches, their offices, their backyards and barbecues. It’s an amazing privilege, and I think she’s humbled by it.”