USA TODAY International Edition
CLINTON’S BEST CAMPAIGN SURROGATE: THE OTHER OBAMA
First lady a ‘ moral compass’ who broaches topics nominee can’t
As the approval ratings for presidential candidates go lower, the first lady’s go high. Michelle Obama, the reluctant campaigner who can’t wait to move out of the White House, has suddenly become Hillary Clinton’s secret weapon, capturing headlines with passionate and personal speeches promoting the former secretary of State and castigating her opponent.
White House aides say the first lady is more valuable on the campaign trail than even the president — “probably the most powerful advocate that Secretary Clinton has,” said press secretary Josh Earnest.
Just as President Obama’s effort to get Clinton elected has made him the most active lameduck presidential campaigner in history, historians say Michelle Obama is perhaps the most active first lady to campaign for someone other than her husband.
Before Clinton — who is, after all, a former first lady and senator herself — Eleanor Roosevelt was the most active first lady in history. Sen. John F. Kennedy repeatedly courted her for her support in 1960, and when it came it was more in the form of behind- thescenes advice than public pronouncements.
Michelle Obama, on the other hand, has taken an ever more visible role on the campaign trail, with recent speeches in New Hampshire and Arizona that garnered national television audi- ences. She’ll appear side- by- side with Clinton on Thursday in Winston- Salem, N. C.
“I don’t think we’ve seen anything like this before,” said Kate Andersen Brower, the author of First Women: the Grace and Power of America’s Modern First Ladies. “She is a godsend to the Clinton campaign.”
That’s partly because Mrs. Obama complements Clinton’s perceived weaknesses. “Michelle is kind of a moral compass,” Brower said. “She can talk about topics that Hillary Clinton can’t. Clinton hasn’t really talked about her husband’s transgressions in the White House. The Obamas don’t have that same stain on them.”
That’s partly because Michelle Obama has largely been above the fray of partisan politics during the past eight years, choosing to focus on relatively non- controversial causes like nutrition, military families and the rights of young girls around the globe.
Brower points to what has become Michelle Obama’s signature line of the 2016 campaign. “When they go low, we go high,” “She can say that,” Brower said. At a party fundraiser in California this week, the president said the first lady would just as soon stay off the campaign trail.
“Some of you may be aware of the fact that Michelle does not really love politics. This was not her first choice for me. She would have preferred a quieter life, a little bit more out of the limelight,” he said. “But the passion that she’s brought to campaigning this time speaks to the degree that this election is different, the choice is different.”
Such is her popularity that even Donald Trump himself — known for late- night Twitter broadsides against Gold Star families, Miss Universe contestants and television anchors — has said barely a word about the first lady, even as she attacks him.
“We have a president, all he wants to do is campaign. His wife, all she wants to do is campaign,” Trump complained last week.
Michelle Obama’s approval ratings are head- and- shoulders above Clinton’s, Trump’s or even the president’s. An August Gallup poll put the first lady’s approval ratings at 64%, vs. those of the possible candidates to succeed her in the East Wing: Bill Clinton ( 49%) and Melania Trump ( 38%).
“She is somebody who enjoys the deep respect of a large majority of Americans,” Earnest said. “She also is somebody who’s a very persuasive speaker, she is somebody who has been able to make a forceful personal case about why she’s involved in this election. And yes, I think the president would admit that his wife is an enormously influential and powerful surrogate in support of Secretary Clinton.”
Previous first ladies, like Barbara and Laura Bush, maintained high popularity by largely staying above the political fray. Michelle Obama’s approval ratings increased by 6 percentage points after her Democratic National Convention speech.
In that speech, she prosecuted the character argument against Trump in a way that only the mother in chief could. “With every word we utter, with every action we take, we know our kids are watching us,” she said. “This election, and every election, is about who will have the power to shape our children for the next four or eight years of their lives.”
Would Michelle Obama convert her campaigning skills into political office someday? Asked that last week, the usually verbose Earnest replied: “No.”