Michelle Obama on Wednesday said the country is in the midst of big
change, as illustrated by the president’s historic election, but that
“we take it for granted" because of what is still undone.
“We're becoming a bigger, more accepting country,” she said on “The
Steve Harvey Show” in an episode aired Wednesday.
“Yes, we want to make sure we have a strong economy, we want to make
sure that there's peace in the world, we have a clean environment,
that every child has opportunities worthy of their dreams, and great
education,” Obama said. “But the real change that happens in our lives,
when we look at the change we see, we take it for granted because
we've grown up in that change. And that's what this little boy
represents.”
The first lady described a photo hanging in the White House of the president, in
the Oval Office, bent over to allow a 5-year-old African-American boy
to touch his hair. She said the picture summed up the huge changes the
country has seen since Obama took office four years ago.
“This is the world [children are] growing up in, they're growing up in
a world where an African-American, where a woman, can be president.
They're growing up where people can love each other, no matter who
they are,” Obama said, with a nod to the politics surrounding
gay marriage. President Obama endorsed gay marriage earlier this year.
The episode of Harvey’s daytime talk show, which was pre-taped, aired
Oct. 3 on NBC, which is both the day of the first presidential debate
between the president and Mitt Romney and the 20th wedding anniversary of
the Obamas.
Harvey asked the first lady to recount her first kiss with the president — which took place after a visit to a Baskin-Robbins in Chicago
— and why she married him 20 years ago, giving Obama an opportunity to draw from her stump speech while complimenting her husband’s “character.”
"When he started talking about running for politics, there was a part
of me that said, 'whoa, whoa.' Politics is, it’s one of those mean,
ugly things sometimes. I didn’t want my husband to go through that,
all of that,” she said. “But then I thought, this is the kind of man —
person — that we want in office, and if I don’t support him, then I’m
just being selfish.”
She also dished, without revealing details, on her search for an
anniversary gift for the president.
"He's hard to shop for," she said. "I've gotten him every golf thing
that you can imagine, so I had to really dig deep on this one."
She also said that while her daughters are not dating yet — Malia, the
oldest at 14, would be the closest — she warns Obama “there are boys
around.”
“I keep telling [Malia’s] father, they exist. They live and breathe,”
she laughed.
Obama’s appearance was a coup for Harvey, a comedian, radio host and
former sitcom star and game show host, who launched the daytime talk
show about a month ago.
Harvey is a vocal supporter of Obama’s reelection.
