First Lady Michelle Obama emerges as surrogate MVP
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this Sept. 28 file photo, first lady Michelle Obama speaks at LaSalle University in Philadelphia, as she campaigns for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
DES MOINES, Iowa » Hillary Clinton was always expected to get a late-campaign enthusiasm boost from the White House. The surprise is that it’s not coming from the president.
On a star-studded team of campaign surrogates — including President Barack Obama — the most valuable player of 2016 is undoubtedly first lady Michelle Obama.
During a divisive political year, the hugely popular first lady has wowed voters with her powerful rhetoric. And she can be the emotional center to a campaign whose candidate is not known for projecting warmth.
Last week, in a searing indictment of Republican nominee Donald Trump that was broadcast live by cable news networks, Michelle Obama said his recorded boasts about making unwanted sexual advances toward women had “shaken me to my core in a way that I couldn’t have predicted.”
With that, the first lady spoke in terms that Hillary Clinton rarely does, given accusations against her own husband that he’s long denied — but Trump has raised.
“If Hillary Clinton were out there making these same arguments, we know how Donald Trump would respond, by attacking former President Clinton and bringing up old stories from the 90s,” said Democratic strategist Lis Smith.
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Michelle Obama also had one of the most memorable lines of the Democratic National Convention, saying her family motto is: “When they go low, we go high.”
Clinton has repeated that line in public several times since.
“Michelle Obama is seen as a truly authentic voice that whatever topic she speaks on, people feel that it’s really coming from her bones,” said Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh.
To the Clinton campaign, Michelle Obama is a crucial asset who can connect with the Democratic base — particularly young people — but also reach independent and undecided voters. That was clear Monday, when the campaign signaled a push into traditionally Republican Arizona by announcing that the first lady would host an early-vote rally in Phoenix on Thursday.
“There is no more powerful advocate for our campaign,” said Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri. “Because the first lady isn’t seen as a political figure, when she does speak out, it has a real impact.”
Even among Clinton’s so-called “uber-surrogates” — the president, Vice President Joe Biden, former President Bill Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren — Michelle Obama has stood out. Once a reluctant campaigner, she has grown more comfortable after more than eight years on the national stage, promoting her childhood obesity and education initiatives, hosting her own events and showing a playful side on talk shows and in interviews.
“Either she’s Meryl Streep, or she’s really genuine about this,” said Robert Watson, an American studies professor at Lynn University. “In this year of plastic candidates, Michelle just seems the most genuine one out there.”
Still, political analysts said the intensity of her advocacy for Clinton is notable.
“It’s unusual for a sitting first lady, or a sitting president for that matter, to campaign so enthusiastically for a presidential candidate. They usually take a lower profile approach. This is indicative of how important both Obamas think this election is,” said Katherine Jellison, chair of the history department at Ohio University who studies the first ladies.
Anita McBride, a veteran of three Republican administrations, said Mrs. Obama’s schedule is more flexible at this stage of the administration because she has held the final events for some of her biggest initiatives.
“It’s sort of wrapping up time where’s it’s never wrapping up time for the president,” said McBride, who was chief of staff to first lady Laura Bush. “He still has everything coming to his desk every day. Now it’s all about preserving the legacy and giving everything she can to the person she thinks can best reflect their values.”
So far this fall, Michelle Obama has campaigned in Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and New Hampshire. She has done radio and television ads, including a television spot targeting early voters in Iowa, Ohio and Nevada. Arizona is up next, with more appearances expected after that.
With three weeks until the Nov. 8 election, Clinton is leading in many national and battleground state polls as the race has been largely overwhelmed by Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric and past sexual comments. Clinton is still contending with the slow release of hacked emails that have raised questions about her relationship to Wall Street and inner campaign workings, and will likely be asked about it when she and Trump debate one final time on Wednesday night, but Trump has taken up much of the spotlight.
Michelle Obama so far is one of the few to escape the wrath of Trump, who has spoken harshly about various voting groups, his own Republican leaders and, lately, the women who have accused him of sexual misconduct.
“I can’t think of a bolder way for Donald Trump to lose even more standing than he already has by engaging the first lady of the United States,” said White House spokesman Eric Schultz.
19 responses to “First Lady Michelle Obama emerges as surrogate MVP”
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the first lady is really a hypocrite in 2007 when her husband was running against Hillary she said Hillary should clean up her own house before cleaning up the white house, first lady did not want to back Hillary but she has to say that because she is a democrat.
so you can see she hates Hillary, she does not back her but she has to be like a democrat the way people had to back hitler.
also heard today on the radio that not even any news or T.V. media pick this up. on Wednesday a Hillary supporter has turned against Hillary and has a nine page letter of all the dirty things that Hillary has done, it will be in the national inquirer that women like to read, you heard it here first lets see if this is true or false.
You’re just pitiful.
Agree. The same can be said of Chris Cristy, Ben Carson, and Ted Cruzes former campaign manager, they never thought much of trump during the primary but now they are all on board the Trump train to no where. In fact, your comment is just as hipocritical.
And Donald has changed Party how many times-as well previously supported the Clintons???
Also the republicans decided to go with such a poor candidate. There really was little difference between Sweet Hillary and Obama in 2008. But I love it that the republicans after complaining about Clinton, decided to go with someone that is ten times worse. The Donald, meaning grabbing a woman’s p*ssy, has a new meaning today thanks to Trump. lol
Thanking WIKILEAKS
for without them, what was known and suspected, would never see the light of day if we had to rely on an honest Fed gov’t and the mainstream media.
Now if only the half of America that ‘reportedly’ still supports that lying, law breaking piece of do-do would only wake up…. and put morals, ethics and the rule of law a priority..
Well, there’s always the potential of becoming the next Secretary of State!
Just don’t put her in charge of school lunches.
Yes, but I think she is positioning herself to run for President of the US AFTER Hillary becomes President of the US for either one term or two terms should she win re-election. Tulsi Gabard is out after supporting Bernie over Hillary and will be iced out by the Demo power brokers the way Ed Case was was made an outcast. Michele has the prestigious Harvard law degree and is very popular so Michele’s and her husband’s high profile support of Hillary has self serving motivations. Given nutso, perv, lying agent orange has exposed the nasty racist portion of the Republican Party, this gives Michele Obama high probability she will become Pres of the US 8 years from now. Hillary will appoint Michele the high profile Secretary of State position and keep Michele in the limelight for at least 4 years from now.
Who is going to out Tulsi? I think she probably can stay in the second congressional seat for the next 50 years. How she does in congress will be due I guess how the house goes. It could go very liberal in the years ahead.
inverse, What an insightful comment on the up take of these players for their coveted roles in the future. It’s also frightening for our country. Same old, same old!!
I think Michele should immediately be nominated to the Supreme court.
Actually, Clinton and her cohorts are carrying out a very negative campaign.
True, the truth hurts. lol
Michelle is grace and intelligence personified, Melania Trump, not so much……
The math is grim for Donald J. Trump: His rival, Hillary Clinton, has a 90 percent chance of winning the election, as of Monday afternoon.
Wait, sorry — make that 91 percent, as of Monday night. It just keeps getting worse for him.
A few weeks ago, the race seemed competitive. So how did the odds turn so convincingly against Mr. Trump? Which voters broke Mrs. Clinton’s way? And why?
And is this race effectively over, statistically speaking?
In the latest episode of The Run-Up, we talk numbers with Nate Cohn, a reporter for The Upshot and our most trusted translator of polls.
In the last month, there have been so many factors that could potentially change a voter’s mind, but Mr. Cohn sees in the polling a definitive moment when things shifted: “The clear marker of change was the first debate,” he tells me.
Normally a bump after a debate is fleeting, but in this case it looks different, Mr. Cohn says. “We’ll never really know what would have happened if there hadn’t been all of these reinforcing events after the debate. After the debate, Hillary gets this bump, and then Donald Trump spends the next week bashing Alicia Machado. Then these tapes come out. Then he has another tough debate performance. So maybe that bounce could have been ephemeral, if the news had been different. Imagine that marginal Hillary voter, if the only thing they’d heard over the last two weeks was about WikiLeaks, would they ever turn back to being undecided?”
I ask Mr. Cohn to describe the profile of the undecided voter in this election. “Usually there’s this caricature of some hockey mom who lives in the suburbs and is going to decide the election on her way to soccer practice or something. I don’t think that that caricature holds up this year,” he tells me. “The pool of undecided voters is pretty diverse. It includes basically every voting bloc. The one thing they have in common is that they really don’t like either candidate.”
We also talk with two seasoned pollsters from each party — Geoff Garin, a Democrat, and Whit Ayres, a Republican — about whether Mr. Trump has any real chance of recovering at this late stage.
“It looks like Donald Trump isn’t even trying to win,” Mr. Garin says. “He’s creating a rationale for why he’s going to lose.”
Indeed…..
Is something wrong with her arms? Is that her fighting stance?
She needs a Hawaii vacation.