{UAH} Michelle warms to Hillary just in time for the campaign
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Michelle warms to Hillary just in time for the campaign
When Michelle Obama takes to the campaign stage with Hillary Clinton on Thursday, the intended message will be that the two women are united in political sisterhood.
What will probably be left unsaid is that the relationship hasn't always been this warm.
As recently as last spring, Michelle was reportedly rooting for Joe Biden to run for president, according to Kate Andersen Brower in her book "First Women: The Grace and Power of America's Modern First Ladies."
Brower believes the coolness reflects the fact that the current first lady took far longer than her husband to let go of the animosity of the 2008 Democratic primary race. Back then, Clinton mocked Barack Obama's campaign message of "hope and change," while Michelle Obama publicly questioned whether she would vote for Clinton even if her husband were not in the race.
Upon entering the White House, Barack Obama quickly came to rely on Clinton as one of his closest advisers, but Michelle did not warm to her as much. She would not be the first candidate's spouse to carry resentment far longer than the actual candidate. Nancy Reagan famously never forgave those who did not support her husband. More recently, Jane Sanders was reportedly one of the last holdouts against Bernie Sanders suspending his 2016 campaign.
There is an unofficial club of first ladies, however, and sometimes real friendships are formed. Michelle Obama is particularly close to Laura Bush, her immediate predecessor, for instance.
Brower believes that is because, political parties aside, the last two first ladies are more similar to each other than they are to the one who came before them both.
"Personally Laura Bush and Michelle Obama are two women who are not superpolitical, who took on pretty traditional roles in the White House," she says, while Hillary Clinton — taking responsibility for health care reform as first lady and serving as senator and secretary of state afterward — was of a different mold.
"Laura and Michelle have done a lot of first lady initiatives together," during the Obama administration, Brower says. "Hillary Clinton didn't have time."
Lately Michelle is more than just finding time for Hillary. It began with Michelle's laudatory speech about Clinton at the Democratic National Convention this summer. Then came her emotional speech on Clinton's behalf after a 2005 "Access Hollywood" videotape surfaced of Donald Trump speaking lewdly about women to Billy Bush. A week later, Michelle gave a get-out-the-vote speech in the battleground state of Arizona. And next she will appear with Clinton at a Thursday rally in Winston-Salem, N.C.
The Clinton campaign describes Michelle as its most effective surrogate, bar none. Even a top Trump campaign official, speaking off the record, called Michelle "a much bigger threat than Hillary Clinton because of her charisma, her connection," adding "it's very tough to compete with that."
Michelle herself, who has often said she hates campaigning, seems energized by being out on the stump.
"I think she has emerged as our not-so-secret weapon," Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said when announcing the joint rally appearance. "She has exceeded our expectations in terms of how many events she has been able to do and been willing to do. Her team keeps surprising us with additional availability, and we can't, from our vantage point, get her out there enough."
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