Obamas take time for romance

CHICAGO (MCT) — In keeping with a time-honored tradition, Barack and Michelle Obama cast their presidential ballots together on Election Day. They stood in side-by-side booths looking every bit the poised, professional power couple.

Then Michelle Obama went off script.

Flanked by their two daughters, she reached over and gently touched her husband's arm. For the briefest of moments, she abandoned her role as first-lady-in-waiting, with all its practiced gestures, and marked the occasion as a wife.

Over the past two years, the future first couple have made a practice of sharing such small, intimate moments on the grandest of stages, whether trading fist bumps, whispering "I love you" or stealing quick kisses on the campaign trail.

The Obamas' unabashed affection for each other suggests they could become one of the most engaging sets of lovebirds in White House history. Though the home has known many deeply committed couples (as well as some infamously uncommitted), few were as young, attractive or willing to put their passion on public display.

"Her enthusiasm during the campaign brought them closer," said Dan Shomon, a former aide who managed Obama's earliest campaigns. "I think their love grew because she has been his biggest cheerleader."

Of course, no marriage is without tension, and the Obamas acknowledge that in earlier years Michelle worried that Barack couldn't juggle his political aspirations and family obligations. Friends say they addressed the strain through a series of frank discussions and sacrifices.

It's also impossible to know what goes on inside any marriage, even one under constant observation. Americans believed John and Jacqueline Kennedy to be a modern-day "Camelot," only to learn years later that he carried on several affairs while in the White House.

"The idea of Camelot was this was a sophisticated couple who were bringing culture and good times to the Capitol. We now know it was a myth, but so was Camelot," said Gerald Gawalt, a Library of Congress historian. "She and he went in separate directions."

When Bill Clinton's affair with a White House intern became public in 1998, the scandal provided unending fodder for critics who long claimed the Clintons' relationship was more political partnership than romantic coupling.