Video & Photos: Michelle Obama Tonight Show with Jay Leno 10-27-08 [Full Interview]

Michelle Obama on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, October 27, 2008

Aspiring First Lady Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama, made an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on October 27, 2008.

Discussing the $150,000 the Republican National Committee infamously spent to clothe VP candidate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and her family, Michelle Obama, a fashion icon (see Michelle Obama Tops Vanity Fair’s Best Dressed List 2008), told Leno, “Actually, this is a J. Crew ensemble,” she said, of her yellow sweater, skirt and blouse. She said she shops online at J. Crew, noting that “You can get some good stuff online.”

J Crew pencil skirt that Michelle Obama wore on Tonight Show with Jay Leno on October 27, 2008

The pencil skirt can be found here on J. Crew.com. (via - Early Childhood Parenting Examiner)

” I try to be as empathetic — I mean, especially a VP pick. It’s like being shot out of a canon, and all of a sudden you’re at the center of attention, and you want to look good.” She went on to say, “but our policy has always been whatever we buy for us, we buy, because, you know, that’s just been the way we’ve run things. But, you know, you’re living in your home, minding your business, and all of a sudden, you’re on the national stage, and everyone’s looking.”

Michelle Obama on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, October 27, 2008

Michelle Obama also talked about the 30 minutes of television time the Obama-Biden campaign has purchased for Wednesday night, October 29, 2008, which Saturday Night Live parodied in a skit featuring Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen. (See: Video: SNL Joe Biden, John Murtha Say Crazy Things, Obama Variety Show 10-25-08 Saturday Night Live)

“So he’s describing this to my mother. We’re at the kitchen table. And Malia sort of overhears it. She’s 10. And she says, ‘You’re going to be on all the TV?’ She said, ‘Are you going to interrupt my TV’…He said, ‘No, we didn’t buy time on Disney and Nick.’ And she said, ‘Oh, good.’ And she got up and walked away. She was just like, ‘Don’t mess with my TV.’”

Michelle Obama talked about her outreach efforts and concern for military families, noting that the challenges these families face are often overlooked. She said, “It’s an issue I’d love to continue to take on if we’re fortunate enough to get into White House,” and went on to say that, despite leading in the polls, she said her husband “is the underdog until he is sitting in the White House” and “we take nothing for granted.”

Speaking of Barack Obama’s grandmother, Madelyn Payne Dunham–whom the candidate calls Toot (Hawaiian for “grandmother”), whose health has taken a turn for the worst and whom the candidate took time out to visit last week, she said she was “up and down” but that she is tough and “she is still hanging on.” She expressed gratitude for the outpouring of support and repeated what Obama has told her about his grandmother; “If you wonder where I got my toughness, it’s from Toot.”

Michelle Obama described the long months of campaigning as something that she enjoyed more than she thought she would. She said it was, “a privilege to be able to travel around the country and go into people’s living rooms, in their kitchens, and you’re reminded how decent folks are — it’s just been an amazing experience.”

Photo credit: AP, J. Crew