Her Heart's in the Race

There is significant irony in her position. The university is an intellectual haven with broadly liberal politics, yet its sometimes diffident approach to surrounding African American neighborhoods has long been a sore point. A half-century ago, its heedlessness provoked one of the most storied episodes in the career of Saul Alinsky, the iconoclastic community organizer whose mobilizing model was studied and taught by Barack Obama.

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In 1960, as the University of Chicago expanded into the black community of Woodlawn, Alinsky mobilized residents to fight back, while also challenging city policies on policing and school segregation. In August 1961, to prove that City Hall should pay attention, more than 2,000 residents boarded 46 buses for the trip downtown. They registered, very publicly, to vote.

Obama is mindful of her well-paid role on the inside. She describes her task as pulling opposing forces together, the kind of thing her husband talks about constantly.

"The truth is that having lived and experienced both sides of the situation, I know the community does not trust and understand the university and the university does not trust and understand the community. And until you can bridge those gaps and hear out both sides and understand why are they afraid, you can't really have a conversation," says Obama, who reports telling the university, "And until you can appreciate the assets of the community, and not just view it from a deficit, then you can't fully partner with it because you don't respect it."

One goal is to open a series of health clinics in the South Side's neediest neighborhoods -- home to the church basement where Barack so impressed Michelle.

The Juggling Act

Yet for all her drive, Michelle learned early that being married to Barack Obama often means that when he is gone chasing his dreams, she must cut back on her own -- in her work and especially in building a two-parent world for their two daughters, Malia, 9, and Sasha, 6.

"It's hard," Michelle Obama once said wryly, "and that's why Barack is such a grateful man."

Their struggles to manage their careers and home life have hardly been private, thanks to Barack Obama's two bestsellers. He writes guiltily about allowing his political career to crowd out his obligations as partner and parent. During one particularly bad stretch, he says, "my failure to clean up the kitchen suddenly seemed less endearing. . . . My wife's anger toward me seemed barely contained."

That was around the time he made the first serious mistake of his political career. He tried to grab a congressional seat from a successful incumbent, Rep. Bobby Rush (D). His ambition kept him largely absent from their Chicago family life and left the Obamas essentially broke. He lost the race by 31 percentage points.

"You only think about yourself," Michelle told him more than once. "I never thought I'd have to raise a family alone."

After the defeat, Obama retooled his efforts on the home front and in politics. Then, four years later, he launched what seemed to his close friends a crazily quixotic race for the U.S. Senate. When he made his pitch to Michelle, he told her it would be "up or out."

"No one thought that was a good idea," recalls Jarrett, who hosted a lunch to talk it through. "We were resolved we were going to talk him out of this . . . Michelle being the most clear that it was a bad idea."