When Michelle Robinson graduated from law school, she first worked alongside Mayor Richard Daley at City Hall as "assistant" planning commissioner, where she first met- then married - husband Barack Obama.
From here, their professional lives would progress up the civic ladder to success.
But the determined couple certainly had it tough, working in various pressure-packed local government positions; and their struggle would continue for years.
After a rugged stint working for the Mayor's office as a "leadership trainer," newly-elected state senator Barack urged Daley to assign Michelle to the "Office of Public Allies" (another esteemed position), specializing in "leadership GROUP training" for young urban adults.
Previously, Mr. Obama had been a former board member of the Public Allies, which provided one of the most vital of community services. After all, one shudders to think of what could have befallen Chicago back then without leadership group training.
Perhaps the entire city may have come grinding to a halt, were it not for the inspirational leadership group training ability of Mr. & Mrs. Obama.
Ah, but true to the fruits of their labor, the earnest work of the young couple began to pay off, when Michelle Obama won a position at the University of Chicago.
Her first assignment was "associate" dean of students. But despite the rigorous strain, she performed admirably, providing a panoply of educational services, deeply affecting the lives of all that she touched.
After that, Mrs. Obama nobly answered the call to duty at the University of Chicago Hospital , where she was forced to scrape by at an annual starting salary of $122,000.
Michael Riordan, the university's CEO, had hired Michelle to perform "community outreach" services for the University's medical center. This no doubt required special outreaching skills that few other people could provide.
Michelle proved to be a real trailblazer, recruiting volunteers, increasing staff "diversity", and working with neighborhood clinics (and physicians) to provide "primary care" for low-income patients, who would otherwise have used the hospital's emergency room.
Basically this "community outreaching" required her to function as the hospital's emergency room bouncer. Mrs. Obama was paid to "steer" patients lacking private insurance (primarily poor people) to other nearby health care facilities.
Michelle flourished magnificently in her newly-created job, directing indigent people away from the "not-for-profit" hospital, winning her accolades from all those who worked around her.
At 5' 11 1/2", Michelle Obama is no shrinking violet, and was noted for her expertise at "patient re-location", and was duly rewarded by the hospital for her valiant efforts.
In March 2005, Mrs. Obama was promoted to "Vice President for External Affairs." Her annual salary was tripled from $122,000 to $317,000.
But by the most remote of coincidences, this was just AFTER her husband had been sworn-in as a U.S. Senator in January of that same year.
Indeed, it had been quite the struggle for the towering, dedicated professional, surviving on a mere $122,000. Now $317,000 a year was certainly a lot more like it.
Then hubby Barack really began to come through:
In his steadfast duty to God and country, one of Senator Obama's first accomplishments was a government grant (earmark) of $1 million for the construction of a new pavilion in front of the Unversity of Chicago's hospital emergency room .
Most fortunately, the pavilion was finished in 2006. The hospital may have been in danger of closing down without it.
But as the wife of a newly-sworn-in U.S. Senator, Michelle's life began to come under scrutiny. For some unknowing reason, The Chicago Tribune began to raise doubts about the amount and timing of Michelle's rather generous raise.
But how dare they question the veracity of the Obamas, who had given up so much of their young lives for the sake of the community?
At once, defenders began to rush to their side.
Hospital spokesman John Easton rebuked the Tribune, saying (quote) "Michelle Obama's salary was in line with those of the 16 other vice presidents at our not-for-profit medical center"
Michael Riordan (who had hired Michelle) said, "her commitment to both family and community was beyond reproach"
Mr Riordan severly admonished the newspaper, maintaining that Mrs.Obama's promotion and salary increase had "absolutely nothing to do" with her husband becoming a U.S. Senator.
"She was hired before Barack was Barack," explained Riordan.
The Obama's were rightfully outraged: After all, what a silly notion it was to think her husband's election as Senator had anything to do with her salary being tripled.
The very indignity of it all!
And the Obama's anger at the Tribune became even more justified after no other media outlet saw fit to pick up the story.
And surely, even without such handsome compensation, Michelle would probably have been grateful to work at her hospital bouncer's job on a volunteer basis, for the sheer satisfaction of serving the community.
Yessir...once you have community service in your blood, there's no turning back.
But the rumblings continued.
Byron York, from the National Review, described the situation in rather blunt terms; (quote) "Isn’t Michelle Obama’s raise sort of a kickback?" (unquote) .
And to further complicate the situation, in late 2006, a story broke about a poor elderly man, who had been turned away from the hospital's emergency room, then literally died on the street a short distance away from the hospital.
Michelle's stellar reputation had suffered a direct hit.