Michelle Obama Says Her Husband "Gets" Hard Times
Remember Michelle Obama? Tall, smart-as-a-whip, married to the man who may be the next president, plain-spoken ... although some might describe it as outspoken. It seems as if Michelle Obama had disappeared from the campaign trail for several weeks after she made her comment about being proud of the U.S. for the first time in her life because her husband had a chance for the Oval Office.
Her remarks, removed from its context and repeated endlessly on cable news generated some unwelcome heat for the Obama campaign. For a while after the event, she kept a relatively low profile.
But she's been making more public appearances lately. Today she is in North Carolina talking about economic hard times -- which makes sense because that's the number one issue on the minds of voters in the state according to recent polls.
She told a gathering in Harrisburg, North Carolina today that it wasn't until her husband wrote his two best-selling books and she paid off her student loans that the couple got out of debt.
"We are not so far away from life that we don't understand and get it," she told the crowd of 50 women at the meeting. "The truth is most Americans don't want much," Obama said. "Folks don't want the whole pie. Most Americans feel blessed to thrive a little bit -- but that's out of reach for them."
Both of the Obamas attended Harvard Law School -- it's not unusual for a student to leave the school more than $100,000 in debt because the school assumes most grads will eventually land in high-paying jobs. (Actually, times aren't all that hard for the Obamas - in 2006, they reported income of $996 226, mostly on royalties from the book sales. It was down from $1.7 million in 2005. They haven't reported their 2007 taxes yet, but have said they will do so this month.)
Michelle Obama also appears in a new ad designed to appeal to women in Pennsylvania. The ad features three female Obama supporters, all of whom are related to the Illinois senator: Michelle, his wife, Maya Soetoro Ng, his half sister, and Madelyn Dunham, his grandmother.
Here is the ad:
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UPDATE: The Tartan, the college paper at Pennsylvania;s Carnegie Mellon University has a report on Michelle Obama's appearence there earlier this week with Theresa Heinz-Kerry. The paper interviewed some students who said they were put off by Obama organizers's attempt to create a "racially balanced" crowd behind Michelle Obama.
Most candidates try to create the right kind of crowd behind the candidate For instance, Sen. John McCain frequently has a crowd of young people behind him in order to create a counter-balance to the age issue. But in this case, the students interviewed believed the Obama people were a too blunt in their attempts at choreographing diversity.
(Hat tip to Deek)
5:23 PM ET | 04- 8-2008 | permalink
