Michelle: The Ultimate First Lady

Traditionally, first ladies come in two varieties, posits Sarah Vine in the Times of London: the “meek, supportive, grin-and-bear-it model”—think Barbara Bush or Nancy Reagan—and “two-for-the-price-of-one” hard-nosed ball-breakers like Eleanor Roosevelt or Hillary Clinton. But now we have Michelle Obama, the perfect synthesis of both types, with a fashion sense to rival Jackie O tossed in for good measure.

“Everything about this woman speaks to the modern, post-feminist woman,” Vine gushes. “She is manifestly clever, independently minded, attractive” and most of all unafraid to point out when Obama is “drinking too much of his own Kool-Aid.” It’s an exciting proposition. “It is not often one can go to sleep safe in the knowledge that there is an intelligent female voice being heard in the corridors of power.”