Michelle Obama: October 2008 Archives

WILMINGTON, DEL.--Michelle Obama headlined a fund-raiser in Las Vegas Tuesday night, giving a serious shout out to Elaine Wynn, wife of casino owner Steven Wynn. The event was at Blush, a nightclub inside Wynn Las Vegas on the strip.

Pool reporter Michael J. Mishak of the Las Vegas Sun:

Among the supporters was Elaine Wynn (wife of casino owner Steven Wynn), who, according to Mrs. Obama, was among the first with whom she discussed her husband's prospective bid for the presidency.

"She played just as much a role in pulling me out as me," Obama said. "She has been, unbeknownst to her, a role model for me along this journey. Her commitment and dedication gives me strength. I want to thank her for being among the first to hear this dream - at a time when it was not easy to even think about Barack Obama."

For entire report, click below

WASHINGTON -- With Barack Obama's lead growing and John McCain's path to the White House shrinking, speculation is growing about who will serve in an Obama administration as Obama's transition team works behind the scenes.

Former Clinton White House chief of staff John Podesta -- a native of Chicago's Jefferson Park community who now runs a Washington think tank -- is overseeing Obama's already robust transition operation.

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), another alumnus of the Clinton White House, is advising on inauguration matters, process, personnel and priorities, if indeed Obama wins. On Sunday, ABC's George Stephanopoulos asked Emanuel whether he would be interested in serving as Obama's chief of staff. Emanuel did not rule it out.

WASHINGTON--Michelle Obama filled in for Barack Obama at big rallies in Ohio on Friday while Obama visited his ailing grandmother back in Honolulu, who lives in the same apartment he lived in as a teen.

Michelle on Saturday delivers the regular Democratic radio address.

Obama in Friday spent time with his grandmother and then went for a solitary walk around his old neighborhood, with a Secret Service agent trailing behind him,

WASHINGTON--I just listened to a message left by one of the regular commentators on my Sweet blog. John wanted to know if there was a chance of us all getting together in person to have the lively conversations we have in print.

Well, I'm game for trying if folks really want to meet up.

I'll be in Chicago for the Nov. 4 election night events and around for the next few days. I could arrange for us to meet someplace--maybe order some pizza and hang out in a Sun-Times conference room. Anyone out there interested in sometime between Nov. 5 and Nov. 7?

WASHINGTON--The McCain campaign unleashed a furious attack on the New York Times for digging into the background of Cindy McCain--as her attorney asserted the paper is not looking deeply at Barack and Michelle Obama.

Her attorney wrote a stinging letter to the managing editor of the New York Times about how the piece was prepared--claiming a reporter contacted a teen on her Face Book page to get some leads.

In the letter released by the McCain campaign, attorney John Dowd notes that Cindy McCain's battles with drugs and the management of her charitable life have been long reported and then he wonders why the paper has not plowed more new ground with Barack and Michelle Obama.

"It is worth noting that you have not employed your investigative assets looking into Michelle Obama. You have not tried to find Barack Obama's drug dealer that he wrote about in his book, Dreams of My Father," Dowd wrote.

"Nor have you interviewed his poor relatives in Kenya and determined why Barack Obama has not rescued them. Thus, there is a terrific lack of balance here.

"I suggest to you that none of these subjects on either side are worthy of the energy and resources of The New York Times. They are cruel hit pieces designed to injure people that only the worst rag would investigate and publish. I know you and your colleagues are always preaching about raising the level of civil discourse in our political campaigns. I think taking some your own medicine is in order here."

Click below for the entire letter

To: the Sweet blog community

From: Lynn

Hi all...please note new features on the blog.....find widgets on the right side... and look at the top of the blog to see where you can sign up for e-mail alerts...that plus as many blog posts as I can manage....and the always useful "Sweet Links."

Pool report by Abdon Pallasch
Chicago Sun-Times

Pool report: Michelle Obama and the Bidens at Women for Obama, DNC Women's Leadership Forum
National Womens Leadership Issues Conf., Sheraton Hotel Chicago
About 1,000 women from around the countrying paid $2,500 to $28,500 to attend.

Oprah Winfrey spoke first - we were not admitted to that.

CHICAGO--Kicking in a round of late nights, Michelle Obama guests on CNN's "Larry King Live" at 8 pm Chicago time and Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" at 10 pm Chicago time Wednesday.

NASHVILLE--Oprah Winfrey joins the lineup for an Obama fund-raising weekend in Chicago aimed at female donors at the $2,300-per-person event starting Friday.

Winfrey, Obama's pal, attended the Democratic convention, stumped in key primary states for Obama and threw a fund-raiser for him at her California estate. I think this is her biggest high profile appearance for Obama to date for the general election.

The event is organized as an "issues conference" and features Barack and Michelle Obama, Joe and Jill Biden, as well as Winfrey and other luminaries from the Obama team.

Pool report by Abdon Pallash, Chicago Sun-Times

Michelle Obama pool report Oct. 6.

Michelle Obama hit two fundraisers in Chicago Monday night.

The first was at the Douglas Dawson Gallery of art on the Near West Side.

WASHINGTON--The title of a new biography of Michelle Obama is simply "Michelle" by Washington Post Magazine writer Liza Mundy, and an excerpt running in the Sunday edition tells of her discontent as an associate at the Chicago law firm of Sidley, Austin, a "challenge to manage."

Barack Obama met Michelle at the firm Michelle joined after Harvard Law School. She was part of the marketing group one of the "fun" practices at the firm--dealing with entertainment, after all, but there still was routine second year associate work Michelle Obama was not crazy about.

excerpt......

"But Michelle could also frustrate her supervisors. Quincy White, the partner who helped recruit Michelle and who headed the marketing group, remembers finding her a challenge to manage. White, who is now retired from the firm, says he gave her the most interesting work he could find, in part because he wanted to see her advance, but also because she seemed perennially dissatisfied.

She was, White recalls, "quite possibly the most ambitious associate that I've ever seen." She wanted significant responsibility right away and was not afraid to object if she wasn't getting what she felt she deserved, he says.

At big firms, much of the work that falls to young associates involves detail and tedium. There were all sorts of arcane but important rules about what could and could not be said or done in product advertisements, and in the marketing group, all the associates, not just the new ones, reviewed scripts for TV commercials to make sure they conformed. As far as associate work goes, it could have been worse -- "Advertising is a little sexier than spending a full year reading depositions in an antitrust law suit or reviewing documents for a big merger," says White -- but it was monotonous and relatively low-level.