Friday, October 3, 2008


Happy Anniversary Michelle
and Senator Obama !
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Barack Obama would like one simple thing for his 16th wedding anniversary _ a quiet date with his wife.
It's unlikely, given that the Democratic presidential candidate doesn't go anywhere without drawing attention these days. He's putting his campaign on hold Friday night to fly back to Chicago and take his wife, Michelle, out to an Italian restaurant.
"I've got this whole romantic dinner planned," Obama told a rally in Grand Rapids. "I think it should go pretty well. That's my hope any ways. I've got a gift all picked out."
The campaign has kept the couple apart for much of the last two years. Even on Thursday when both were campaigning in Michigan, they were in different parts of the state and didn't plan to see each other.
Obama told reporters aboard his campaign plane that he never forgets their anniversary, after it slipped his wife's mind their first year. Asked for his thoughts on how to maintain a marriage for 16 years, he suggested a sense of humor, listening and "never get so mad that you forget why you love them."
"You know what you guys could give us for our anniversary?" he said, turning to the television reporters. "Not have a camera pool outside of the restaurant, so that everybody knows that we're there."