From the Washington City Paper blog City Desk
Whoa. Michelle Obama, on 60 Minutes tonight, went out of her way to mention that she and her husband plan on getting involved in local D.C. issues (and, in one of those minuscule, easily overanalyzed signifiers, she did say “D.C.”, not “Washington”).
The mention came in response to a question directed at Michelle Obama by Steve Kroft about how she would conduct herself as first lady. He followed up with a question about whether the Obamas were “seriously” considering a public school for their girls Sasha and Malia. Michelle Obama punted on that one.
Here’s what she had to say:
The primary focus for the first year will be making sure the kids make it through the transition. But there are many issues that I care deeply about. I care about military families and the work-family balance issue. I care about education. Both Barack and I believe that we can have an impact in the D.C. area…you know, in terms of making sure we’re contributing to the community that we immediately live in. That’s always been something that we try to do, whether its in our own neighborhoods, or in the schools that we’ve attended. So there’s plenty to do.
[Kroft] Did you seriously consider sending the girls to public school?
You know, we’re still in the process of figuring out that transition and what we have asked people to understand is that the decision that we make will be based on the best interests of the girls. We haven’t made that decision yet. We want that to be a personal process, and people have been really good about respecting that.
