The unassuming Obamas were so 'ordinary' they were edited out of a 1996 book entitled 'Couples in America', writes Lara Marlowein Paris
IT IS like stepping back in time, to an afternoon in November 1996 when Barack and Michelle Obama were not famous, not president-elect and imminent first lady, just an ordinary, up-and-coming young professional couple who agreed to meet the photographer Mariana Cook for her book, entitled Couples in America.
Indeed, the Obamas were so "ordinary" that Cook's publisher cut them out of the book. But Cook kept rolls of film and tape-recorded interviews until French newspaper Le Mondepublished them at the weekend.
The impression given by Le Monde'stwo-page exclusive is of two people wise beyond their years, certain of their love for each other and imbued with a powerful sense of public service. Nothing they have said or done has contradicted these separate interviews, given 12 years ago.
The Obamas had been married for four years when they talked to Cook. Their union seemed unshakeable. Michelle said they "just built a friendship first, and then that grew from there".
"She is at once completely familiar to me, so I can be myself, and she knows me very well and I trust her completely, but at the same time she is also a mystery to me," Barack said.
In bed at night, he continued: "I look over and sort of have a start, because I realise here is this other person who is separate and different and has different memories and backgrounds and thoughts and feelings, and I think it's that tension between familiarity and mystery that makes for something strong, because even as you build a life of trust and comfort and mutual support, you retain some sense of surprise or wonder about the other person, and I think that's important."
Barack Obama's white American mother and black Kenyan father stayed together for just two years, when both were students in Hawaii. "I think in some ways all my life I have been stitching together a family, through stories or memories or friends or ideas," he said.
In his autobiography, Dreams From My Father, the US president-elect recounted how his father had eight children with four different women.
Obama's interest in politics seems to be driven by a broader sense of family. Cook asked the former social worker, who was considering standing for a seat in the Illinois state senate, what he hoped to achieve in politics.
As an African American, Obama said, his greatest concern was children in the inner cities.
"My first priority is to restore a sense of public or collective values to the debate," Obama said. "And that means recognising that we have mutual obligations and mutual responsibilities. And that's maybe where the public and the private meet . . . that the overriding priority in all those associations is a sense of mutual responsibility and empathy, then being able to put yourself in another person's shoes. That's how the marriage between Michelle and me sustains itself.
"We can imagine the other person's hopes or pains or struggles, and we have to extend that beyond just the individual families to other people." Both alluded to tension between them over his hopes of embarking on a political career. "When you are in politics your life is an open book and people can come in who don't necessarily have good intent," Michelle said. "I'm pretty private and like to surround myself with people that I trust and love. I want to have kids and travel and spend time with my family. That [political] lifestyle may lead us more away from that than towards it . . . It'll be interesting to see what life has to offer."
Michelle Obama said she initially hesitated to date Barack when they met at the Sidley and Austin law firm in Chicago. He was a student intern, she a first-year associate, and she'd been assigned to show him the ropes. "It was funny, because when there was all this scuttlebutt about him, this sharp, handsome, smart, young first year, you know everybody was oh, Barack, Barack, Barack. And I'm kind of sceptical. I thought yeah, well he's probably kind of a nerd. I always think when lawyers pump someone up they are probably lacking on the social side."
The couple were attracted to each other "because we didn't take the whole scene as seriously as a lot of people do", Michelle said. "He liked my dry sense of humour and my sarcasm."
"It's not often that a girl from the south side of Chicago meets somebody who can speak Indonesian and has travelled and seen a lot of interesting things. That added a dimension to his character that I didn't see in the upper middle-class professional work environment."
The couple come across as interlocking parts of the same human puzzle, a microcosm of American society. His multi-racial, unorthodox upbringing is complemented by her traditional, African-American, working-class family. He is rootless and restless, she stable and secure. Contrary to their image during the campaign, she is the more cautious partner.
When Barack met Michelle, he thought she "looked real good" and was impressed by her strength.
"But I also think in her eyes you can see a trace of vulnerability, or at least I do, that most people don't know, because when she's walking through the world she is this tall, beautiful, confident woman and extremely capable. But there is a part of her that is vulnerable and young and sometimes frightened, and I think seeing both of those things is what attracted me to her."