Michelle Obama Embraces Re-election Campaign

(NewsCore) - A famously reluctant political spouse, Michelle Obama says she is embracing her husband's campaign this time around, but her openness to hitting the trail comes with caveats, suggesting her time devoted to the re-election effort will be carefully calculated.

"My approach to campaigning is: This is the time that I have to give to the campaign, and whatever you do with that time is up to you, but when it's over, don't even look at me. Don't look this direction. No calls, no anything," she said Friday in an interview with reporters traveling with her on a trip to promote her childhood obesity initiative.

Obama, who says her relationship with her husband is two-fold as a citizen and as his wife, is drawing firm lines around her time, both with her daughters, Sasha and Malia, and for herself.

"It's been a tough row to hoe, but I want him to be my president for another four years, as a citizen," she said. "So I'm going to do what I need to do. But Malia and Sasha always come first."

Obama's stump speech in recent weeks has included a line conceding that she, like other Obama supporters, has at times wrung her hands and questioned what he is doing since he took office in 2009.

On Friday she said, that is because she is the pessimist while her husband is the optimist, or, perhaps, as she put it, she's "Eeyore," and he's "Mr. Happy Guy, seeing the glass half full."

She also sees herself as providing validation for those supporters.

"I'm like regular people. It's like -- we're losing! The sky is falling! Oh no!" she said. "And he's like, just calm down."

Obama had early reservations about her husband's presidential campaign. She was also reluctant to hit the campaign trail in 2010, and only did so after some prodding from her husband's staff and once she felt she had a clear vision of her mission.

Campaigning has not always been smooth for her, particularly in 2008 when she touched off a flurry of criticism by saying that "for the first time in my adult life, I'm really proud of my country."

Speaking Friday to reporters on the fifth anniversary of her husband declaring his candidacy for president, she said she understands her role this year.

In perhaps a sign that she has found her stride as first lady, Obama sounded like a woman who has grown keenly aware of time as she pursues her own agenda.

Obama has been one of her husband's strongest surrogates, with an approval rating, in the 60s -- well above his.

Having defined her own campaign role, Obama said her daughters, now 13 and 10, have also been given a choice of whether to participate. "They're excited about it," Obama said, "because they know that their lives are going to be fine either way."

Read more: Wall Street Journal