Love Story

Before Michelle Robinson (aka Michelle Obama) met Barry Dunham (aka Barry Soetoro, aka Barack Obama) back in 1988, she like many of us later on couldn't understand what was so great about him. She, unlike the rest of us, had the misfortune of having been assigned to him when he first worked at a Chicago law firm upon graduation from law school. Furthermore, he was calling himself "Barack Obama," which was hardly impressive in and of itself. It was hard to pronounce, let alone hard to spell. The name, whether it was his legal name or not, was not a romantic-sounding one. Although she later bragged about him being the "best of the best" because he went to Harvard Law School and was president of the university's law review, back then she took one look at his picture and said to herself, "Forget it." He looked too geeky for her tastes, and she figured he was nothing but an upstart.

When she finally met Obama/Dunham/Soetoro, she was less put off by him. It might not have been love at first sight, but she liked his charm and they had a similar sense of humor. They began to be friends right away. But Obama/Dunham/Soetoro wanted a little bit more than just a friendship. He wanted to date Michelle. She wasn't keen on doing it because she wasn't big on office romances. However, Barry/Barack wore down her resistance, and finally, one day, then went out for a Baskin-Robbins "rush."* That's when Barry/Barack decided to kiss her. He said the kiss tasted like chocolate.

I am not going to make any comment on the previous sentence that would be misconstrued as "racist."

Michelle was finally won over. This nearly six-foot-tall woman finally found somebody she could look up to. She took her potential mate to meet her brother, Craig, then a Princeton basketball star, who wanted to find out just what this guy REALLY was. He seemed nice, Barry/Barack, that is, but Craig thought one could find out a lot about a person by the way he or she played basketball. So he decided to test Obama/Dunham/Soetoro by having him play a "pickup game" of basketball. Craig discovered Dunham/Soetoro/Obama was "confident" and "very team-oriented," which meant he passed the test.

Michelle finally met (part of) her beau's family in Hawaii, but it took him two years to finally get up the nerve to propose to her. Given his background, he wondered often whether marriage was an outdated institution. But, as we all know, they finally tied the knot in 1992. They were madly in love, we are told in this story, and eventually they had two daughters.

The pair had rocky times, especially around 2000 when he was planning his ill-fated run for Congress, but they've weathered everything. At least so far.

When Obama/Soetoro/Dunham is on the road, he tries to call Michelle every night. He is known to send her flowers and gift packages to a downtown spa.

The marriage is certainly one for the ages, like Pickford/Fairbanks, Gable/Lombard, Jack/Jackie, Bobby/Ethel, Martin/Coretta, and whoever else you can think of.

Excuse me while I gag.
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*--I stole the phrase, "Baskin-Robbins rush," from one of my favorite movies of all time, the 1980 timeless turkey Can't Stop the Music.