Michelle seen as Hillary’s champion
UNITED STATES: She was once viewed as a campaign liability, a reluctant political spouse pilloried for saying her husband’s impending victory was the first time in her adult life she had felt ‘‘really proud of my country’’.
But now Michelle Obama, the first lady, is regarded as the top Democratic campaigner, eclipsing even the president in terms of broad appeal. Her recent impassioned denunciation of Donald Trump was immediately made into a Hillary Clinton television advertIsement. When the Democratic campaign decided that Arizona - which has voted Republican in 15 of the past 16 elections - was now potentially within its grasp, it was Michelle who was sent to make the case.
Speaking in Phoenix, the state capital, she said Trump’s refusal during last week’s television debate to say whether he would accept the election result was ‘‘threatening the very idea of America itself’’. The Republican nominee’s strategy was ‘‘to make this election so dirty and so ugly we just turn off the TV and say, ‘We just don’t want any part of it’.’’
Michelle Obama’s journey as a campaigner has been a long one. In 2007, Obama aides winced when she took a shot at Hillary Clinton by referring to the infidelities of her husband Bill, then regarded as the most powerful and inspiring Democrat - except Obama - in America. Now, Michelle is considered the most on-message and self-disciplined of Clinton’s ‘‘surrogates’’. In contrast, Bill Clinton is seen as an increasingly doddery and gaffe-prone figure who rambles off script and is largely kept under wraps. He is being deployed sparingly after he branded Obama’s signature healthcare reform ‘‘the craziest thing in the world’’ but he is still being used in the rust belt and Florida to enthuse white workingclass voters and older black voters.
On Saturday, Trump hit back, telling supporters: ‘‘I see how much [she] likes Hillary. But wasn’t she the one that originally started the statement, ‘If you can’t take care of your home,’ right? ‘You can’t take care of the White House or the country?’ Where’s that? I don’t hear that. I don’t hear that.’’
Michelle is seen as the greatest persuader for women, black voters and Millennials. The fact that she has never shown interest in a political career of her own makes her appeal broader. While Trump has only himself and running mate Mike Pence who can draw big crowds, Hillary Clinton has the first couple, her running mate Tim Kaine, vice-president Joe Biden and the Left-wing favourites senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
The Democratic dream of Michelle Obama following Hillary Clinton’s path towards a White House return is, however, unlikely to come true. David Axelrod, the president’s former top adviser, said last week: ‘‘People say to me all the time, ‘Well, do you think she might run for office?’ I would bet everything I own against that prospect. I honestly think she’s going to be very happy to get her life back when this is over and recede a little bit from the public.’’ - Sunday Times