As Senator Barack Obama and family are on a campaign tour this week throughout Iowa, MSNBC’s First Read filed a report today about the woman that is introducing him at each stop. It is titled, Michelle Obama: All Fired Up:
"Think! Listen!" she implored during an impassioned introduction of her husband today, "The game of politics is to make you afraid, so that you don't think!"
More after the jump.
But if anyone doubts that Michelle Obama isn't at least as potent a campaign weapon as Bill Clinton, Elizabeth Edwards, Ann Romney, or any of the multiple spouses that the rest of the Republicans have had (heh, I couldn't resist that one), let's watch some video footage.
UPDATE: Thanks to the comment below by scarce, who added the video from today that everyone's talking about:
More at the jump...
This moment in today's video, about Barack's 2002 speech against going to war in Iraq, was especially moving:
“It was unpopular. But he was right. Because, he’s special (applause). And the thing that I want you all to remember, please, please, don’t base your vote this time on fear.”
Here's eight minutes of a speech that Michelle Obama made this spring in Colorado:
One of my favorite moments of that Colorado speech was when Michelle said:
“Don’t be fooled by the people who say that he’s not experienced. He’s worked on the ground. The only candidate in this race who has actually worked with people, registered voters, built housing, changed lives: this is my husband.”
More from MSNBC's First Read:
At a rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Michelle Obama showed just how fiery we can expect her to be as her husband's battle for the Democratic nomination heats up.
"Think! Listen!" she implored during an impassioned introduction of her husband today, "The game of politics is to make you afraid, so that you don't think!"
Her introduction was a super-charged version of Barack Obama’s stump speech, which has increasingly vilified the bleak status quo of a rigid Washington establishment. But where he highlights hope, his wife warned today of the consequences of fear. Jabbing a pointed finger in the air, she derided a political system in which "every decision that we've made over the past 10 years wasn't FOR something, but was because people told us we had to fear something."
She put a hard edge on her husband’s "war that never should have been waged" applause line, too, exclaiming, "We are in this war because for eight years; we were told to be afraid!"
Now, much has been written about how national polls show Senator Clinton beating Obama among black voters, particularly among black women. I think that is accurate. Indeed, black voter preferences make for a significant part of Clinton's lead in the national polls. What will happen to those national numbers (and the resulting triumphalism of some Clinton supporters) when those numbers switch?
Look what has happened in South Carolina, where both Obamas have campaigned intensively, the campaign has run ads on the radio, and Obama has already convinced 55 percent of black voters (a number that will surely climb some more), that he's their choice. This, according to the recent Public Policy Polling survey:
Obama 55
Clinton 29
Undecided 14
Edwards 1
Kucinich 1
(All others at zero)
That will surely grow to surpass 60 percent, and likely push 70 once the votes are cast. But the real story will be in higher black turnout, which will confound pollsters leading up to the primaries in South Carolina and other states where black voters make up a significant part of the primary vote, because until SC votes they won't have a clue as to what percentage of the total voting pool will be among black Americans.
That poll, for example, contemplates a black turnout of 40 percent in South Carolina, and has Obama and Clinton in a virtual tie (34-31). What happens if it is higher, as some of us believe it will be?
Another interesting tidbit from South Carolina: Among white voters, a whopping 43 percent list the war in Iraq as the most important issue to them. That's fairly consistent with national demographics, too.
If you accept, as I do, the premise that Obama will win the black vote (and bring a significantly higher black turnout) in the primaries, and that more white voters will, when they begin paying attention, start to tune in to his sharper and more consistent and more passionate advocacy against the war, your "Spidey Sense" is likely tingling and you probably sense the Obama underdog juggernaut to come.
If there is any doubt that the sale is going to be made, here's another video I recommend, of Michelle Obama speaking in Senator Clinton's own state, in the neighborhood where former president Bill Clinton has his offices.
Here are excerpts from the television program Harlem Arrives (with a nice musical intro featuring Ella Fitzgerald singing one of my favorite Duke Ellington tunes):
I especially liked this part:
“Let’s just talk about experience for a moment (applause). Because the thing that is the most interesting in this race is for people who say that Barack Obama is not experienced. And I can’t wrap my head about that because there is no other place in this world where a man with the credentials of Barack Obama will be called inexperienced (applause). Alright? Barack is the only candidate in this race that has worked on the ground with people as an organizer. You name me one other candidate that has organized in the community. Name me one other candidate that has been a civil rights attorney. Name me one other candidate who’s been a constitutional law scholar… Name me one other candidate who has been the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review. Do you know what that means? (Applause.)”
Here she comes: Michelle Obama. Underestimate her if you wish.