What’s extraordinary about President-elect Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama’s interview on 60 minutes is how comfortable they look with their respective roles.  Aside from an annoying tendency to tip his head to one side like Mr. Rogers, Barack already has the gravitas and authority that his predecessor never had.  He sounds and looks presidential.  Michelle similarly manages to look dignified and yet relaxed at the same time. 

I would hazard a guess that she’s more keenly aware of what the two of them are about to give up than Barack is, but that’s just my hunch.  Virtually all semblance of a normal life goes away when you move inside the Presidential Bubble, by all accounts, but we can estimate the loss only because the two seem real to begin with.  So many other presidential couples exhibit a weird tension that comes, I’m guessing, from too little time spent on the things that really matter in a relationship. 

But the truly extraordinary achievement of the ’60 Minutes’ interview and the other glimpses we’ve seen of President-elect Obama is the way in which he’s leaped into the role as if he was born to play it.

No gaffes, no clumsiness, no mixed messages.  This is a guy who’s inner life is consistent with his outer achievement.  His body language betrays no leakage of doubt, qualm, or panic. 

In particular, he’s got two non-verbal signals going that radiate confidence and decisiveness – exactly what we need at this time of national financial ruin.  First, he nods as he makes his points.  Nodding builds agreement.  It works unconsciously for the most part on viewers; often they find themselves nodding back.  And then you’re hooked, because your mind thinks, I must agree with him because I’m nodding and I don’t do that for no reason.  

Second, Obama uses the authoritative arc in his voice.  I’ve written about this before, but basically it means that your voice comes down in pitch at the end of the phrase, sentence, or thought.  The alternative is the annoying habit many people today have of saying everything as if it were a question.   The result of using the authoritative arc?  You sound like you know what you’re talking about.  You sound certain.  You close off debate.  If you watch the interview carefully, you’ll see that the interviewer had precious few follow-up questions to pursue some of the statements that Barack made.  That’s because he left no room for doubt.

He hasn’t had a chance to do anything yet, really, but the atmospherics are good.  This is a guy who was born to be president.