The Wall Street Journal’s Monica Langley has a terrific piece on Michelle Obama on the front page of today’s paper.

The scene: Barack Obama and his top advisers on a conference call, prepping for a debate. Michelle dialed in to listen and couldn’t stay silent.

“Barack,” she interjected, “Feel - don’t think!”

Saying her husband’s “over-thinking” during past debates had tripped him up with rival Hillary Clinton, she said: “Don’t get caught in the weeds. Be visceral. Use your heart - and your head.”

The campaign veterans shut up. They know Michelle Obama’s opinion and advice means more to their candidate than anything they could say.

A Princeton- and Harvard Law-educated hospital executive, Michelle has assumed a dominant role in the Illinois senator’s public life.

The three people Michelle lives with certainly aren’t surprised.

She expects a lot of the family, from having their six- and nine-year-old daughters set their own alarm clocks to insisting her husband pick up his dirty socks. Her most recent directive to Barack: Stop smoking.

In the campaign, she has emerged as an influential adviser whom aides watch as a barometer for how both they and Barack Obama are doing.

They watch for “the look” between Barack and Michelle Obama on stage or in private moments, as an indication of his mood.

Inside the campaign, she’s been dubbed “the closer” because she often pushes harder to seal the deal with voters than he does.

In the Democratic race, Bill Clinton comes across at times as empathetic, a seasoned leader of the world - or argumentative attack-dog-in-chief.

Michelle leaves the policy and strategy to Barack Obama on the campaign trail, but jumps right in when it comes to issues that affect her personally, such as being a working mom and overcoming obstacles.

Continue reading in the Wall Street Journal …