Michelle on PBS: I Don't Lose Sleep Over Lying Opponents

On Tuesday night, PBS anchor Judy Woodruff offered Michelle Obama the kind of cozy interview she has typically offered to Democratic wives at convention time. Her sharpest question dealt with her unfavorables in the polls, and Mrs. Obama strongly asserted that she wouldn't lose sleep over conservatives mischaracterizing her, and knows that the Obama family narratives are deeply compelling to voters: 

WOODRUFF: Now your speech was also view by some as an effort to repair what some polls I guess had shown were negative impressions that had accumulated about you – your values, your view of the country. How concerned were you about that going in and do you have any concerns about that now?

MICHELLE OBAMA: You know, this is politics. And I’ve always felt that when people hear my story and they hear the truth of my story, then they’ll understand who I am. You know, I try not to lose sleep over how Barack’s opponents have mischaracterized who I am.

But this speech wasn’t intended to repair or to address. It was really, you know, as much as it could be for me, an honest and open discussion about how I was raised, and how Barack was raised and how we hope to raise our kids, because those are the things that move people.

They want to know at some level the people that are going to run this country understand the issues that folks are facing and that they connect on a very fundamental level, and I think our stories do that in a very compelling way. They always have. I think that’s why Barack is the nominee.

When PBS anchor Jim Lehrer turned to his pundits for analysis, David Brooks said she was "impressive" and Mark Shields said her speech showed she was "fuller and deeper" than the way "right-wing radio" tried to present her.