Obama Praises an "Unsung Hero"

The president-elect salutes his mother-in-law, Marian Robinson - the future First Grandmother

by Rich Thomaselli

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A grandmother plays a strong role as the head of a family, particularly when she lives with, or close to, her children and grandchildren.

She's a combination of matriarch, mentor, caregiver, confidante, playmate, and role model.

President-Elect Barack Obama knows this.

Obama appeared, with his wife, Michelle Obama, November 16, on CBS' 60 Minutes in his first post-election interview, and during the hour, he spoke about the role Robinson plays in his family.

"I think it's fair to say that Marian Robinson is one of the unsung heroes of this campaign," Obama told interviewer Steve Kroft.

Robinson, a widow, is Michelle Obama's mother, and grandmother to the Obama children — Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7. Obama's parents are deceased, and his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham — the girls' great-grandmother — died November 2, two days before his history-making election.

Robinson, 71, helped care for Malia and Sasha for much of the 21 months the Obamas spent on the road campaigning for the presidency.

"We couldn't have done it without her," Obama said on the program. "'Cause she retired, looked after the girls, gave Michelle confidence that somebody was gonna be there when Michelle was on the road."

While Obama wouldn't answer the question directly, there is speculation that his mother-in-law will move from her hometown of Chicago to Washington, D.C. to continue helping care for the girls. And speculation continues that if she were to move, would it be into The White House, or into a nearby residence.

The President-Elect said she is more than welcome to join the family at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but added that there's a "lot of fuss" in The White House, and that Robinson "doesn't like fuss around her."

But it seems Obama would like Robinson to join them, joking with Kroft that "I don't tell my mother-in-law what to do. But I'm not stupid. That's why I got elected president, man."

Obama echoed his wife's sentiments when Michelle Obama told Newsweek magazine last week that she would beg her mother to join them.

The President-Elect has a strong bond with his mother-in-law, and he told Kroft that the emotion of nearly two years of campaigning to become the first African American President of the United States didn't really sink in until he was watching the returns on Election Night, and Robinson reached for his hand.

"There's no doubt that there was a sense of emotion that I could see in people's faces and in my mother-in-law's face," Obama said of Robinson. "You know, I mean, you think about Michelle's mom, who grew up on the west and south sides of Chicago, who worked so hard to help Michelle get to where she is, [and] her brother to be successful. She was sitting next to me, actually, as we were watching returns. And she's like my grandmother was, sort of a no-fuss type of person. And suddenly she just kind of reached out and she started holding my hand, you know, kind of squeezing it.

"And you had this sense of, 'Well, what's she thinking?'" Obama continued. "For a black woman who grew up in the '50s, you know, in a segregated Chicago, to watch her daughter become first lady of the United States ... I think there was that sense across the country. And not unique to African Americans."