Michelle Obama leaves behind reluctant spouse image in ‘It Takes One’ campaign

DAYTON, Ohio — Michelle Obama, after years of overt wariness toward politics, is shedding her reluctant image in favor of something unprecedented for a modern first lady: her own branded campaign.

Four years after an unsteady debut on the national stage, she is becoming the face of the campaign’s initiative to organize grass-roots supporters, holding events in cities across the country as part of the new “It Takes One” program. She is also talking increasingly about substantive policy, moving well beyond her trademark issues of childhood obesity and military families.

Loading...

Comments

• Weigh In
• Corrections?

Personal Post

Video

The Washington Post’s Felicia Sonmez reports on the first lady’s new efforts to expand her role in her husband’s reelection campaign.

More from PostPolitics

Is Joe Biden a liability for Obama?

Aaron Blake

Polls show the vice president was something short of popular -- even before his recent comments drew fire.

Paul Ryan’s stimulus problem

Aaron Blake

Ryan says he has never sought stimulus funds, but he has written letters on behalf of constituents seeking stimulus funds. So what's the difference?

Romney tries to shift tax debate

Chris Cillizza

THE FIX | Mitt Romney says he paid 13 percent in taxes for the past 10 years. But is the case closed?

For a spouse who once expressed an aversion to politics and regularly said it took “convincing on Barack’s part” to get her on board, the approach represents a notable shift.

The first lady is “someone who never asked to be on the public stage and never aspired to be on the public stage but now has found a comfortable place,” David Axelrod, a senior adviser to the Obama campaign, said in a recent interview.

Perhaps. Or perhaps Michelle Obama is as attuned to the polling data as the rest of her husband’s reelection team — and has decided that, in an election that has been virtually deadlocked for months, every ounce of her enthusiasm could count. She said as much in an interview on the “Steve Harvey Morning Show” last week.

“We can’t assume we love Barack [so] he is going to be fine. No. That’s not how this works,” she said. “We have to be vigilant.”

That sense of urgency was not always a hallmark of the first lady’s rhetoric, which has undergone a dramatic evolution since her introduction to the electorate. While she was always an energetic backer of her husband’s, Michelle Obama peppered her public appearances with doses of doubt about the process, not to mention ample lighthearted criticism of her husband’s foibles (remember her complaints about his dirty socks?). She suffered for her flashes of honesty, most famously in 2008, when her confession that she had only recently become proud of her country brought a torrent of accusations that she was unpatriotic. She quickly revamped her image, clamping down on her spontaneity and, after moving into the White House in 2009, declaring herself “mom in chief” with little potential for controversy.

Her popularity soared, all the more so after she planted the first White House garden since Eleanor Roosevelt. But now, with the election just 3¹ / ₂ months away and the polling consistently tight, she has loosened up — at least somewhat.

“At this point, what have you got to lose? This is your last national campaign. It really sort of frees you up for all kinds of strategies to win,” said Anita McBride, who served as chief of staff to former first lady Laura Bush. McBride recalled Michelle Obama’s performance in the 2008 campaign as “a little rocky,” saying she now appears to have a “completely different attitude toward the whole process.”

“Maybe this is what she understood campaigning to be at the very beginning,” McBride said, referring to the first lady’s grass-roots focus.