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[Arden Farhi of the CBS News digital team sat down with Craig Robinson, the head basketball coach for Oregon State University and brother to incoming First Lady Michelle Obama to talk about the 2008 presidential campaign. Here’s his report:]

When first-term senator Barack Obama announced his campaign for the presidency of the United States way back in February of 2007, critics called him green; that he wasn't ready for a grueling campaign or the Oval Office.

One of those critics was his wife, says Craig Robinson, the President-Elect's brother in law.

"When I first heard about Barack running for president, I might have been one of the few people in my family that was all for it," says Robinson.

"My sister and my mom were against it," Robinson says, referring to Michelle Obama and their mom Marian Robinson. "Barack asked me to talk to my sister and my mom because there was no way he could undertake something of this magnitude without having both of them on board."

Robinson has spent much of the last year campaigning on behalf of his sister's husband, holding events in Oregon, speaking at the Democratic National Convention and appearing on stage at the Obama victory rally in Chicago on election night.

The campaign was a family affair, says Robinson. "We all agreed to help out with this, we just didn't realize he would win."

Last week I sat down with Robinson at a hotel in Washington, DC. Robinson is in his first year as head men's basketball coach at Oregon State University and takes over a team that did not win a single game in its conference last year.

(DENVER) “Are you ready to unleash the power of women to take our country back?” asked EMILY’s list founder Ellen Malcolm at the organization’s gala in the Sheraton Denver hotel Tuesday afternoon.

Before a crowd made up largely of liberal women, Malcolm encouraged the crowd to support the Democratic ticket, prompting a cheer when she noted that both Barack Obama and Joe Biden are pro-choice. The crowd really got going, however, when she mentioned another Democrat who’s been making headlines at the Democratic National Convention this week.

“Hillary,” Malcolm said loudly, “you make us proud.”

Clinton came to the podium about a half hour later, to a rapturous welcome from the crowd. The New York senator noted that today is the anniversary of the day when women were given the right to vote, saying, “there could not be a better day to celebrate the power of the women’s vote.”

Clinton urged the crowd to support the Democratic ticket.

“Barack and Joe will champion the issues we care about,” she said, telling the crowd “they will stand with us and they will fight for us.”

She also targeted presumptive GOP nominee John McCain.

“He still doesn’t believe that women deserve equal pay for equal work,” Clinton said. “He doesn’t believe that women deserve the right to choose. He would turn the clock back, and what we need from our president is forward movement.”

“The choice facing women in this election could not be clearer,” Clinton added. “The stakes could not be higher.” She urged her supporters to “work as hard for Barack Obama as you did for me in the next months. “

The former first lady left the stage soon after, saying she had to work on the speech she will be giving at the Pepsi Center later tonight.

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(DENVER) Barack Obama’s campaign released some excerpts of the speech Michelle Obama will deliver during her prime-time appearance at the convention tonight. According to the campaign, Michelle Obama “will talk about her husband … the values that have driven him as a father, husband and public servant and why she believe he will be an extraordinary president.”

Here’s an excerpt from Michelle Obama’s prepared remarks: “Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you’re going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don’t know them, and even if you don’t agree with them. And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and pass them on to the next generation. Because we want our children – and all children in this nation – to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.”

The tone of the remarks released this afternoon track with the message the campaign has stressed coming into this convention, stressing values that will connect with many voters and trying to introduce the candidate as “one of you.”

DENVER – The road to Denver hasn’t been an easy or terribly pleasant journey at times but the Democrat Party arrives here this week with mile high expectations for victory in November. For the first time in a long time, many Democrats believe that the time is ripe not only to take back a White House that has been occupied by Republicans for most of the past 40 years, but to reshape the entire political landscape at the same time. Still, there are not a few challenges and pitfalls awaiting the party this week:

The Clinton Factor: Make no mistake about one thing – modern political conventions are so scripted, so staged and so micro-managed that even the slightest hint of conflict is where the media’s attention is going to be. Republicans learned this lesson the hard way in the 1990s when the press paid more attention to platform fights on the abortion issue than anything that was happening at the podium.

Lingering divisions from the primary fight between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have filled that role at the outset of this convention. Questions about unity grew even stronger last week when it was suggested that the Obama campaign never really even considered Clinton for his running mate, despite pretty clear signals that Clinton was pleased with the selection of Joe Biden.

How divided does the party remain? A CBS News/New York Times survey of delegates gives a hint, showing that 20 percent of the delegates coming to Denver plan on voting for Clinton on the first ballot of the roll call vote. That’s not an insignificant number but far below the nearly half she won during the primaries. And it’s less clear whether those votes would be a “last-stand” effort or one of loyalty to a candidate they supported for so long last winter and spring. Clinton reportedly will “release” her delegates this week, something that could decrease her numbers further.

Clinton herself has suggested that the party needs a “cathartic” moment to cleanse any remaining bad blood between the two camps. If the Obama can come out of Denver with even a little more enthusiasm from Clinton supporters, it will be a victory.

Introductions: One of the reasons John McCain’s line of attack on Obama’s “celebrity” has apparently been successful is that many American voters still only know the nominee from magazine covers and made-for-TV picturesque events. Polls show that voters certainly have reservations about the Senator from Illinois and this convention is a chance to help fill in some of those holes.

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In an interview with Glamour Magazine, Barack Obama called attacks on his wife "infuriating" and blamed conservative media for perpetuating them, the Associated Press reports.

"If they have a difference with me on policy, they should debate me. Not her," Obama told the magazine,.

Michelle Obama came under scrutiny in February when she was speaking of her husband's candidacy and said, "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country."

More recently, the presumptive Democratic nominee has criticized a satirical cover of the New Yorker magazine, which depicts him and his wife Michelle as militant radicals.

Barack Obama has a new ad out in Pennsylvania apparently designed to appeal to a segment of the population with whom rival Hillary Clinton is usually stronger: women.

The ad features three female Obama supporters, all of whom are related to the Illinois senator: Michelle, his wife, Maya Soetoro Ng, his half sister, and Madelyn Dunham, his grandmother. You'll recall that Obama famously referenced Dunham in his speech on race, noting that "on more than one occasion [she] has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.”

As soothing music plays in the background, the spot opens with Soetoro Ng saying that "people recognize themselves in Barack."

"They feel understood by him," she adds. "In part, that’s because he listens so well."

Dunham is then shown, first in a photo with a young Obama, and then addressing the camera. "I think it’s given him a lot of depth and a broadness of view," she says.

It's unclear from the ad to what Dunham is referring; the New York Times quotes an Obama spokesman saying she is referencing "her grandson’s willingness to listen to folks, which allows him to better empathize and understand what they are going through.”

The spot then cuts to Obama's wife, Michelle. "Barack and I talk all the time about making sure that our girls can imagine any kind of world for themselves, with no barriers," she says, as the Obama family is shown onscreen. The spot then cuts back to Soetoro Ng, who states that Obama "wants to make sure that everybody’s children have the opportunities that his daughters have."

Watch it:

In a fund-raising pitch to supports this afternoon, Michelle Obama takes aim at what she calls the "win-at-all-costs" campaign by the Clintons – both of them. In the signed e-mail, she writes:

"In the past week or two, another candidate's spouse has been getting an awful lot of attention.

We knew getting into this race that Barack would be competing with Senator Clinton and President Clinton at the same time.

We expected that Bill Clinton would tout his record from the nineties and talk about Hillary's role in his past success. That's a fair approach and a challenge we are prepared to face.

What we didn't expect, at least not from our fellow Democrats, are the win-at-all-costs tactics we've seen recently. We didn't expect misleading accusations that willfully distort Barack's record.

Barack Obama isn't relying on a former President of the United States to campaign for him.

He's relying on us -- you, me, and hundreds of thousands of people like us who are giving whatever they can afford to support this movement."

More, from the fundraising appeal: "We've seen disingenuous attacks and smear tactics turn people off from the political process for too long, and enough is enough.

It's time for a change. It's time for a new kind of leadership and a new kind of politics in our party and in our country.

And while Senator Clinton has a former president in her corner, I'll put my faith in a movement of a whole lot of people who are ready for change."

In the last Democratic debate, Barack Obama responded to comments by Bill Clinton by saying, "I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes." Hillary Clinton shot back, "I think we both have very passionate and committed spouses who stand up for us. And I'm proud of that." Michelle Obama has maintained that she won't engage in the political debate in the past, but maybe she took Clinton's comments as a green-light to "stand up" for her man.

We know Iowa is a crucial state but is it the end-all, be-all for Barack Obama’s campaign? Campaigning for her husband in Davenport, Iowa yesterday, Michelle Obama tried to impress upon voters just how important the state’s caucuses will be for deciding the Democratic nomination. “Iowa will make the difference,” she is quoted as saying. “If Barack doesn't win Iowa, it's just a dream, but if we win Iowa, then we can move the world as it should be. And we need your help in making that happen so join me. ”

Her comments caused more than a splash when they were first reported a little differently. Apparently, the Quad City Times had earlier cited her words this way: “Iowa will make the difference. If Barack doesn't win Iowa it is over.”

There’s a difference between “just a dream” and “it’s over” but Iowa is shaping up to be perhaps a decisive contest. Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards are waging full-blown campaigns in the state and whoever wins this January will have captured a tremendous amount of momentum heading into the rapid-fire series of primaries to come. It ain’t over until it’s over but Iowa certainly could be the beginning of a quick end.