First lady rallies with Clinton
Michelle Obama touted candidate as most qualified to seek office
WINSTON- SALEM, N.C. — When Michelle Obama took the stage with Hillary Clinton here, it was a moment of mutual admiration that the country had never seen before.
“First ladies, we rock,” Obama said, turning to Clinton as the arena roared its approval.
The moment represented a high-water mark for the office of the first lady. No longer are they only serving the role of supportive spouses. They are political forces in their own right.
Obama delivered a resounding endorsement of her predecessor in the East Wing, Clinton, who is also the woman seeking to succeed Obama’s husband in the White House. She championed Clinton as the most prepared and qualified person to ever seek the office and urged voters in a critical battleground state to head to the polls.
“Hillary doesn’t play,” Obama said, reciting Clinton’s résumé as first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state. “We have never had a more qualified and prepared candidate for the presidency than Hillary Clinton,” she said. “Yes, more than Barack, more than Bill. So she is absolutely ready to be commander in chief on Day One.”
Lest her point not be crystal clear, Obama added: “Yes, she happens to be a woman.”
The joining of these two women on one stage drew more than 11,000 people inside the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum and a massive line of supporters outside, many of whom came to lay eyes on the first lady who enjoys approval ratings nearly unseen in politics.
Clinton’s aides view Obama as a singular figure in the campaign: someone who is outside of the political realm with credibility and appeal across party lines. They hope that some of that credibility will rub off on Clinton, who by contrast is broadly distrusted by American voters. Even now, Clinton has been pressed by questions about the wisdom of an arrangement where former president Bill Clinton appeared to leverage donors to the family’s charitable foundation to rake in millions of dollars in paid speeches.
“I would not be here lying to you,” Obama said, promising that Clinton would be the president who met the most important criteria for the job.
Obama can also do things that Clinton often does not do for herself — at least not particularly well. Clinton has been beset by the perception that she is out of touch with Americans, and after a primary fight with a more populist Sen. Bernie Sanders, she has struggled to convince some skeptical Democrats that she is committed to taking on power- ful corporate interests.
Obama took the task head on, focusing on the parts of Clinton’s biography that have nothing to do with her résumé.
“Hillary’s mother was an orphan abandoned by her parents. Her father was a small-business owner who stayed up nights poring over the books, working hard to keep their family afloat,” Obama said to a quieted audience. “Believe this, Hillary knows what it means to struggle for what you have and to want something better for your kids.
Obama had come to vouch for Clinton, but Clinton spared no words praising her.
She spoke of Obama with the admiration of a woman who knows what the job of first lady requires, yet also knows that the woman currently inhabiting her former post is doing it in a way she never could. “Seriously, is there anyone more inspiring than Michelle Obama?” Clinton asked the delirious crowd at Wake Forest University.
Clinton’s introduction of Obama was full of wistfulness, deference and gratitude, an acknowledgment that Obama is risking her virtually sterling reputation to go to bat for Clinton in a messy and dark election.
“Let’s be real. As our first African-American first lady, she’s faced pressures I never did,” Clinton said. “And she’s handled them with pure grace.”