Obama speaks with MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski

Earlier today on "Morning Joe," MSNBC aired an interview Mika Brzezinski conducted with Michelle Obama, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Below is a transcript of the interview that aired this morning on "Morning Joe."

Mika Brzezinski, MSNBC Anchor: Michelle Obama, thank you so much. How did your husband do last night?

Michelle Obama: Oh, he was awesome. Yeah, he was wonderful. It was Barack in his essence. He was comfortable, confident, you know, the measure of how I think he does is how I feel. And I was moved. I listen very intently when he speaks because I always want to find out whether I believe it, you know, whether I feel that authenticity. And I do every single time he speaks, but there are just some times when he touches my heart in a way that makes me very clear about why we're doing this.

Brzezinski: He connects well in a crowd.

Obama: Yes, he does.

Brzezinski: He's able to really get the magic going. You have two daughters, Malia, she's nine?

Obama: Yes.

Brzezinski: And Sacha?

Obama: Sacha.

Brzezinski:Six.

Obama: Her proper name is Natasha.

Brzezinski: Oh, okay.

Obama: We call her Sacha.

Brzezinski:Alright, I have one of those as well.

Obama: You know how they can be.

Brzezinski: Yes I do. What do you tell your girls about what daddy is doing? I guess about why this is so important. Because it's got to be a lot of work for them.

Obama: Yes, we've tried not to let this campaign interfere with their lives. They're at the age where we don't talk about it a lot, we let the conversation happen. They don't have a lot of questions about it, I mean, they understand politics. Barack has had a political life ever since they were born, that's all they've known. So they're familiar, and they understand the election process, they understand what the president does, they understand the process, but they're nine and six, so they're mostly concerned about what they're going to be for Halloween, who's coming to their pot luck, you know, and we like that.  We allow them to come in and out of the campaign as they choose.  So, if they want to come somewhere, and they're free, they come.  But usually they want to stay in their world, in their lives. They want to be with their friends, and we allow that to happen.

Brzezinski: You try to give them an element of choice.

Obama: Yeah, absolutely. So they don't feel like this process is taking over their lives.  And they have said that they appreciate the fact that they have friends and teachers who could care less about this. My oldest daughter, actually, told her, "That's what I like about you, Miss Bikelson, you don't really care about this, and you treat me the same, no matter what."

Brzezinski:That's going to be important for them. Especially if things move on. I'd like to ask you about the status of your career at this point. Because you've cut back if I've read correctly, to 20 percent of your job.

Obama: Yeah, I mean, you know how work is for mothers. It's all very flexible. I carry a Blackberry from work, so I'm constantly on that, in communication with my assistants, my staff, and with today's technology you can do a lot over Blackberry. But we've set up things at the hospitals where I've got some senior staff that are taking over the day-to-day responsibility, but when there are emergencies, or important conversations, where they want me engaged, I go in. So, it's just been difficult. It's difficult when you've got a senior level position, and you're working on pretty major projects, just to walk away completely.

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