The Obamas, circa 1996

On May 26, 1996, Mariana Cook visited Barack and Michelle Obama in Hyde Park as part of a photography project on couples in America. What they had to say twelve years ago is revealing in that the couple they were in 1996 is remarkably consistent with who they were during the campaign and how they come across today.

The New Yorker has a photo essay, but if you're interested and want to brush up on your French, Le Monde has more of the interview, transcribed from the 1996 tapes, but translated into French. (Political Punch has it translated from English into French and then back again, so maybe not as accurate as one might like, but you can get the gist.)

Michelle Obama said she initially hesitated to date Barack when they met at the Sidley and Austin law firm in Chicago. He was a student intern, she a first-year associate, and she'd been assigned to show him the ropes. "It was funny, because when there was all this scuttlebutt about him, this sharp, handsome, smart, young first year, you know everybody was oh, Barack, Barack, Barack. And I'm kind of sceptical. I thought yeah, well he's probably kind of a nerd. I always think when lawyers pump someone up they are probably lacking on the social side."

The couple were attracted to each other "because we didn't take the whole scene as seriously as a lot of people do", Michelle said. "He liked my dry sense of humour and my sarcasm."

"It's not often that a girl from the south side of Chicago meets somebody who can speak Indonesian and has travelled and seen a lot of interesting things. That added a dimension to his character that I didn't see in the upper middle-class professional work environment."