Enter stage left, Barack and Michelle
Welcome back, Barack and Michelle. They’ve kept a low profile since leaving the White House. But this week, it looks like they’re ready to take to the public stage again, one strategic step at a time.
On Thursday, Michelle Obama announced that she’ll be a co- chair of When We All Vote, a celebritystudded, nonpartisan effort to boost voter registration and turnout this fall, especially among young voters.
The Nov. 6 midterms have become “D- Day” for the Democratic Party, which is hoping to wrest control of at least the House from Republicans. But Michelle Obama’s announcement made no mention of that, staying clear of the political fray with a tweet focused on civic duty.
“In my family, voting was a sacred responsibility, one which we never took for granted,” she wrote on Twitter. “I’m excited to be a part of @ WhenWeAllVote to inspire and empower all eligible voters to make their voices heard.”
Meanwhile, two days earlier, the former president took on the current one without even a mention of his name.
In a rousing, high- profile speech in South Africa on what would have been Nelson Mandela’s 100th birthday, Barack Obama spoke up for equality, spoke against the “politics of fear, resentment, retrenchment,” and warned about the “strange times” we’re living in, full of “head- spinning and dangerous headlines.”
And in an indirect arrow that nevertheless hit the bulls- eye, he made pointed note of the “utter loss of shame among political leaders when they’re caught in a lie and they just double down and lie some more.”
If that’s not the perfect description of Trump, we don’t know what is.
Our country could use some public civility and sanity right now.
We’re hoping to get a large dose of that, from a former president and first lady who made “going high” a way of life.