Michelle Obama Takes Back Her Image

Michelle Obama has been called everything from a black nationalist to a "baby mama" in recent weeks, and sporting a new chief of staff, she's looking to take on the rumors. In a New York Times interview, Obama outlines her journey from Chicago's South Side to the White House doorstep. “I will walk anyone through my life,” says the would-be first lady. “Come on, let’s go.”

From her days at Princeton and Harvard to her work in a Chicago housing project and a university hospital, Obama has addressed racial questions with a frankness that belies the "Mrs. Grievance" title the National Review recently gave her. Obama says she doesn't recognize that persona. "I mean, ‘whitey’? That’s something that George Jefferson would say." (More Barack Obama stories.)