Michelle is the moral centre that guides me: Barack Obama

US President Barack Obama has said that wife Michelle is the moral centre that guides him through the chatter in Washington.

Obama gushed with pride as he introduced first lady Michelle for her speech at the Clinton Global Initiative, telling the crowd that she's the moral centre that guides him through the noise of Washington and reminds him why he's there.

"While I get plenty of good advice from a lot of people during the course of the day, at the end of each day, it is Michelle -- her moral voice, her moral center -- that cuts through all the noise in Washington and reminds me of why I'm there in the first place," the Politico quoted him as saying.

Obama praised her work as "a partner to me, and the best mother that I know."

"Every moment that I spend with my daughters, I am thankful for all that she's done to make them who they are.

There is "no greater gift" than the force a mother brings, he said invoking the Clintons' daughter, Chelsea, as another example.

"To this day, I still don't know how I talked her into marrying me, but I know that I am the luckiest guy in the world that she did," he said.

Mrs Obama then said, "With an introduction like that, you can see why I married the guy, right? Not so bad. But the truth is, is that I feel pretty lucky myself."

The first lady thanked Clinton and also praised some of what she called his finest work - raising a daughter while living in the White House - and said the current first couple tries to learn from how the Clintons brought up Chelsea.