‘I was sold after first date’

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Miami: “By the end of that date, it was over. I was sold.” This is how Michelle, now wife of US President-elect Barack Obama, described her first date some 20 years back with her husband.

Even after hearing a lot of buzz about a “hot-shot, young, first-year law student from Harvard” in the Sidley and Austin law firm in Chicago, where she was an intern then, Michelle hesitated to go on a date with Barack as she was assigned to be his mentor.

“I was taking my job (as Barack’s advisor) very seriously. That was my first responsibility as an associate. So, my mind was not focused on dating. I thought this guy is going to be a good friend of mine. I liked him. We hung out but I just did not see a relationship coming out of that,” Michelle said during an interview while describing her initial sentiments towards Barack.

After refusing to go out with Barack for a month, finally, Michelle agreed to spend a day with him. “We had spent a month in the firm together and we were developing a very good friendship. I liked him but he insisted that we should go out on a date..so, I said ok,” she said.

“We went to art institute, had lunch at an outdoor cafe with jazz playing in the background, walked and talked, saw the movie Do the Right Thing by Spike Lee and had a drink on the 99th floor of the John Hancock building, which had a beautiful view of the city,” she added.

“Probably, by the end of that date, it was over. I was sold,” she said. Michelle confessed that Obama was much more “cute” than she had pictured him before meeting him in the office.

Picturing an image of “very intellectual nerd”, Michelle said “I, probably, did what lot of people do when they hear about Barack Obama.

“First, I thought what kind of name is Barack Obama? And I found-out that he grew-up in Hawai, I found that strange..that was always where you vacationed and not where you were from and I found-out that he was bi-racial. So, my assumption was this guy is got to be weird.” But he “intrigued” her in every possible way and they “clicked right-away,”she said.