Only human after all

Oh, Barack! Whether he's murmuring juicy White House titbits or whispering sweet somethings into his wife's ear, Barack Obama does it with such adoration. Even when he's waving to citizens, the hand that holds his love's never wavers.

"Michelle, Barack's belle! These are words that go together well! Barack's belle!" The Beatles could very well have sung.

Michelle Obama is her man's No1 supporter. She gave up a successful career to help him realise his dreams. A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, she is so secure in her accomplishments that she took on the role of US first lady with ease.

She cheers the loudest for her husband, and held his hand long after the "Yes we can" slogan had lost its appeal. She takes good care of their daughters. She is the quintessence of the aphorism "Behind every great man there's a great woman".

Michelle is the envy of many first, second, third, fourth, last, and numberless ladies. She's smart and beautiful - and married to a smart and beautiful man. She puts women half her age to shame. Those shapely legs and toned arms, derriere and stomach make everything she wears look stunning.

When she visited South Africa in June, people were charmed by her humility. When she spoke at Regina Mundi church, in Rockville, Soweto, even the gogos - superb judges of character - agreed that Barack had chosen a makoti worthy of the highest office in America. And they haven't stopped talking about how amazingly humble, beautiful, respectful and sincere she is.

My, the Obamas! They look happy and good together. Their public displays of affection are sincere - and make for adorable photos. We love pictures of Michelle lost in Barack's dreamy eyes - or of Barack admiring his wife, looking hot in a side-swept fringe, long lashes and cherry lips.

Many women have asked their partner: "Why don't you hold my hand the way Barack holds Michelle's?" and "Why don't you look at me the way Barack looks at Michelle?"

We look at the Obamas and we trust that, whatever is going on in the US and the world, whether the dollar is weak or strong, whether Barack's popularity rating has dropped or risen, whether he's being criticised or we are charmed by his words, they will be together long after his term(s) of office.

This family is as strong as they come.

Well, that is what we believed . until The Obamas hit the shelves.

Some of us (ahem, most of us, women at least) breathed a sigh of relief when the book, written by The New York Times journalist Jodi Kantor, portrayed the Obamas, not least Michelle, as human, just like the rest of us.

How relieved we are that Michelle complains, interferes and whines - and that she had doubts about their life in the White House. According to the book, which was released last week, Michelle wanted to stay in Chicago after Barack won the presidential race - at least until the girls finished the school year.

Sound familiar? The debate about uprooting children or joining your partner when he gets that big promotion that takes him halfway across the world is the kind of issue normal people deal with, no?

The book suggests Michelle was insecure about her new role. What does it mean to be the first lady? I would wonder myself, wouldn't you?

Our image of Michelle as the cool, calm, collected "great woman", who has found new purpose helping fight obesity in America and visiting families of soldiers whose loved ones are fighting wars outside the US, was shattered when Kantor told us she is a meddling and divisive, hard-to-please woman who always wants to get her way. Or was it?

Michelle, we are told, was at her bitchiest when Barack was working on healthcare reform.

Oh I'm so relieved that, like the rest of us, she has an opinion about how the president should govern. Is it so shocking that Michelle wanted to see her views and ideas in ink? She is, after all, "one of her husband's closest confidants". Wouldn't you want your pillow-talk ideas reflected in policy?

We were pleased to learn that Michelle didn't like aspects of her new glamorous life, like the fact that she was no longer able to take her daughters to school without stopping the traffic. And there I was thinking she enjoyed the attention, being snapped in another pretty sundress.

Except for her dubious decision to throw a lavish Alice-in-Wonderland Halloween party in 2009, when the US was in the middle of a recession, Michelle is not tabloid page-three material.

If we were hoping The Obamas would - to paraphrase Ann Donald in a Sunday Times column - scratch beneath the surface of the respectable Obamas and reveal the soap opera we will be disappointed. There isn't much that will shock or surprise the gogos in Rockville - at least not in this book.