Obama: 'He'll win if it's meant to be'

by Mark Silva

DENVER -- Is Barack Obama's election meant to be?

"He'll win if it's meant to be,'' wife Michelle Obama says in an interview airing on NBC News. "And I'm also a bit superstitious. I never claim it out loud. We just do the work. I don't want to jinx it.

"I don't want too get to far ahead of myself because I think just from a sanity perspective - it's always better to be in the moment, to figure out what we have to do today, tomorrow and the next couple of days....to make sure we're doing the best job we can do,'' she says in the interview with Brian Williams, anchor of the NBC Nightly News, airing this evening. "So I try not to get too far ahead of myself, and that may lead me to be more of the kind of person, that if this is something that was meant to be, it will be.''

How often does she allow herself "to sit back and say I can't believe this is happening. I can't believe we're doing this,'' the anchor asks the candidate's wife in excerpts provided by NBC Nightly News with Brian Willams.

"Yeah, it is hard to,'' she replies. "I don't know whether I just don't allow myself to do it, or whether things are just so busy that there really isn't time between being on the campaign trail, and trying to keep the girls lives on track

"When I go back to Chicago, the first thing I need to do, is make sure the girls have their books for school, and they've got their school supplies, and they visited their school. Does Malia have her locker number? If I give you the sense of what runs in my head.''

For instance: "September at home... the start of the school year. That's the big thing in the Obama house.''