Michelle Obama for Senate?

First lady Michelle Obama celebrates her 50th birthday on Friday, January 17. Click through the gallery to see photos from her life.

Obama was born Michelle LaVaughn Robinson in Chicago. Here, she is seen as a baby with her father, Fraser Robinson III; her mother, Marian; and her brother, Craig, in 1964.

Obama attended Bryn Mawr Elementary School in Chicago from 1970-1977.

Obama's 1980 yearbook photo from Whitney Young High School in Chicago. The magnet school was far from her home on the south side of the city, however, and her round-trip commute was three hours.

"I was a pretty serious student," Obama said in a November interview with BET's "106 & Park." "One of the things I wanted to make sure was that I didn't peak in high school. ... So I focused on school. I was really clear that I wanted to go to college. So I needed to have myself together, go to my classes, be on point, be involved in the school."

Obama, seen here in her 1981 yearbook photo, was salutatorian of her high school's senior class.

Obama attends prom in 1982 with her first boyfriend, David Upchurch.

Obama graduated from Princeton University in 1985. She received a bachelor's degree in sociology and minored in African-American studies.

She met Barack Obama when she was assigned to be his mentor at Sidley & Austin, a Chicago law firm. Here, the two pose for a photo in Hawaii in 1989.

The couple married on October 3, 1992.

The Obamas have dinner in 2000 with their first child, Malia. Malia was born on July 4, 1998.

The Obamas are seen in March 2000, when Barack Obama, then an Illinois state senator, was running for the U.S. House of Representatives. He lost the Democratic primary to four-term incumbent Bobby Rush.

The Obamas are seen with daughters Malia and Sasha at Sasha's christening. Sasha was born on June 7, 2001.

The Obamas check in with poll workers in Chicago in November 2004. Barack Obama would go on to win a U.S. Senate seat.

The Obamas celebrate during a victory party in Chicago on November 2, 2004.

Barack Obama gives his wife a playful kiss as they tour the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, in August 2007. Obama was campaigning at the time for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Michelle Obama has breakfast at Pamela's Diner in Pittsburgh in April 2008.

Michelle Obama speaks during the Democratic National Convention on August 25, 2008.

During his inauguration ceremony in Washington, Barack Obama takes the oath of office as his wife holds the Lincoln Bible.

The first lady meets with former South African President Nelson Mandela in June 2011.

Michelle Obama exits a Target department store in Alexandria, Virginia, after doing some shopping in September 2011.

The first lady kisses her husband during an inauguration reception at the National Building Museum in Washington in January 2013.

Michelle Obama, via satellite, announces the Oscar for best picture at the end of the Academy Awards show in February.

Michelle Obama dances with Jimmy Fallon on Fallon's late-night show in February.

Michelle Obama plants the White House Kitchen Garden on the South Lawn of the White House in April. To help her, she invited students from schools "that have made exceptional improvements to school lunches." It was part of the first lady's "Let's Move" campaign, which she launched in 2010 to reduce childhood obesity.

The first lady rides a bike while vacationing in Martha's Vineyard, an island off the coast of Massachusetts, in August.

Michelle Obama dances alongside "Sesame Street" character Rosita at the White House in October, after it was announced that "Sesame Street" characters would promote and market fresh fruit and vegetables by Produce Marketing Association growers, suppliers and retailers. It was part of the first lady's "Let's Move" initiative.

Michelle Obama reacts as Ashtyn Gardner, a 2-year-old from Mobile, Alabama, loses her balance while greeting Sunny, one of the Obamas' dogs, at a White House event in December.

Michelle Obama listens as her husband speaks to members of the U.S. military and their families at a Christmas Day meal in Kaneohe, Hawaii, last month.

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• Sally Kohn: Article notes Michelle Obama's recent higher profile. Does it presage Senate run?


• Why not? she says. Before becoming first lady, she was accomplished attorney


• Kohn says she's been effective advocate on nutrition, military families; her approval rating high


• Kohn: She'd be a formidable candidate, and America seems to like to see her in public eye

Editor's note: Sally Kohn is a progressive activist, columnist and television commentator. Follow her on Twitter @sallykohn. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) -- It's not surprising there's speculation that Michelle Obama might run for the United States Senate — although one should note that at this point, that's all it is: speculation — made mainly in a Reuters article written by Keith Koffler, editor of the website White House Dossier.

The fact is, however, Michelle Obama is a highly effective and popular public figure and would make a gifted elected leader.

We should remember that before Barack Obama's presidency, Michelle Obama was perhaps even more of a superstar than her husband. An accomplished attorney, she was an assistant to the mayor of Chicago in the early 1990s, as well as an assistant commissioner of planning and development for the city.

After running the Chicago branch of the nonprofit Public Allies, which gets young people engaged in nonprofit and government leadership, Obama moved to the University of Chicago, eventually rising to be vice president of the university's extensive hospitals network.

In our unequal country where so many people are vastly and unfairly underpaid, income certainly isn't an accurate measure of talent. But it certainly is often a good measure of power. In 2006, Sen. Barack Obama reported a salary of $157,082. The same year, Michelle Obama's salary was $273,618.

As first lady, Michelle Obama has managed to be both iconic and accessible, a hard-to-achieve but quintessential balancing act for the greatest of political leaders. She has taken on the important issues of child nutrition and obesity, as well as the challenges facing our nation's military families. And on both issues, her unflagging leadership and unimpeachable achievements have been clear.

Michelle Obama's food fight

First Lady: Our kids deserve better

First Lady: Some schools 'aren't equal'

But no doubt the speculation about Obama's next steps is partly related to this: Voters who enthusiastically supported her husband's campaign have been disillusioned by the messiness of governance, largely due to the unprecedented hostility of the Republican Party, but certainly made worse by President Obama's inability to outmaneuver his opponents either in rhetoric or in legislation.

All that hope and change can fizzle in the face of reality, but Michelle Obama still seems full of the same optimism that once drove voters to the polls. Moreover, those of us who often long to see President Obama be more confrontational, or even angry and aggressive, sometimes see more of that raw fighting spirit in his wife. Should she someday choose to run for office, Michelle Obama may prove an even more gifted politician than her husband, especially when it comes to dodging the incoming attacks and getting things done.

All the buzzing around Hillary Clinton's potential presidential run can't help but encourage the speculation about Michelle Obama, the prospect of another first lady running for the Senate and maybe, someday, a higher office. It's worth noting that Michelle Obama's approval ratings are higher than Hillary Clinton's were when she was first lady. Michelle Obama's approval ratings are also higher than her husband's.

The political stars might certainly be aligned: Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois is a Republican in the Obamas' Democratic home state and would be up for re-election in November 2016, just as the Obama White House would be drawing to an end.

Should Michelle Obama choose to run, she would be a formidable candidate in every way, from public speaking to fundraising to policy to media and more. But either way, just the fact that anyone is speculating sends a flattering signal to a beloved first lady who America would clearly like to keep in the public eye.

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