With her husband’s approval ratings plumbing new lows, Michelle Obama could be the Democratic Party’s most powerful asset in the upcoming midterm elections. Calling her an “untapped political weapon,” Politico says the popular First Lady will likely take a central role this fall, in a way she didn’t in 2008, when she gave an infamous quote about the campaign making her “proud to be an American for the first time.” The First Lady hasn’t lost her ability to rile the opposition (witness this weekend’s Drudge headlines on her supposedly lavish vacation in Spain), but one thing is clear: Democratic politicians want FLOTUS.
Pundits claim Michelle hearkens back to the energy and excitement of Obama’s presidential campaign.
“Michelle is ‘still a reminder of what people liked about President Obama,’ added Princeton University professor Julian Zelizer. Unlike her husband, the first lady ‘can retain some of the image and the excitement from the campaign because you’re not pushing policy, you’re not angering members of Congress.’”
Michele could help in tight races in Illinois, Nevada, and Florida. Some candidates — like Illinois representative Deborah Halvorson and Democratic Senate candidate Elaine Marshall of North Carolina — have publicly asked for Michelle to come campaign for them. And others, like Representative Joe Sestak, have said they’d rather have Michelle than her husband. “My No. 1 choice … is Michelle Obama,” Sestak told reporters last week. “I told them it’s a woman’s nation. Women are more employed than men for the first time in our nation’s history.”
FLOTUS’s star power in demand [Politico]
