US News

Michelle Obama avoids windy wardrobe malfunction

WASHINGTON — President Obama flew to Texas to herald the “winds of change” that blew through the 1960s — but first, he had to protect First Lady Michelle Obama from a stiff breeze on the tarmac.

Arriving in Austin aboard Air Force One, the president and Mrs. Obama walked down the stairway as a gust threatened to give the first lady an awkward Marilyn Monroe moment.

The wind lifted the first lady’s pleated skirt “enough, above the knee, for the president to reach over and hold it down” to avert an incident, according to a pool reporter who was there.

The first couple laughed at the flap as they walked down the stairs.

Then, it was on to the Lyndon B. Johnson presidential library, where Obama marked the 50th anniversary of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, crediting the laws Johnson signed with opening doors that made his own career possible.

“They swung open for you and they swung open for me,” the president declared.