Bright future for another first lady

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration may be coming to a close, but Michelle Obama’s time in the political spotlight is likely just getting started.

While most first ladies slip quietly into private life after leaving the White House, Obama is not like most first ladies.

We should take her at her word when she repeatedly denies plans to run for office. But she’s also someone who cites among her role models — Eleanor Roosevelt, whose advocacy for racial and social justice and human rights continued long after President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s death.

Yesterday’s joint campaign appearance with Democratic presidential nominee and former first lady Hillary Clinton in Winston-Salem, N.C., demonstrated why Obama is, and will continue to be, a highly valued Democratic surrogate.

“You may have noticed that I have been doing some campaigning for Hillary,” Obama said coyly of her previous impassioned addresses on Clinton’s behalf at the Democratic National Convention and later in the wake of unearthed lewd remarks by GOP nominee Donald Trump. “And I know that there are some folks out the who have commented that it is unprecedented for a sitting first lady to be so actively engaged in a presidential campaign.

“That may be true,” Obama continued. “But what’s also true is that this is truly an unprecedented election. And that’s why I’m out here.”

With that, Obama upbraided Trump — without mentioning his name — as someone who has dragged the nation’s political discourse to a level so low children have to be protected from it. She also tagged his campaign message of a “rigged” election as a craftily orchestrated attempt at voter suppression.

“That’s the strategy: to make this election so dirty and ugly that we don’t want any part of it,” Obama said. “So when you hear folks talking about a global conspiracy, and saying that this election is ‘rigged,’ understand that they are trying to get you to stay home. They are trying to convince you that your vote doesn’t matter.”

Then she harkened back to her husband’s own winning campaign theme of eight years ago.

“They are trying to take away your hope,” Obama said, urging attendees on the first day of early voting in North Carolina to go out and cast their ballots “right now.”

Obama’s popularity — which exceeds even her husband’s — explains why Clinton herself served as a warm-up to Obama’s address yesterday. Clinton understands there are few better political closers.

And Obama is savvy enough to know her own political capital is too high for this to be her final act.