Anyone fearing Barack Obama is succumbing to a "Messiah complex" might be disabused by observing his wife, Michelle Obama, on the campaign trail. An increasingly effective advocate for her husband, Mrs Obama has a tendency to remind people of Mr Obama's less glamorous qualities.

Having revealed that Mr Obama snores, leaves the butter dish outside the fridge and drops old socks around their three-storey home in Chicago, Mrs Obama was chided by some for apparently impairing her husband's dignity. Maureen Dowd of the New York Times even accused her of "emasculating" Mr Obama when she should have been elevating him.