The last time I remember a former First Lady being fully involved in politics was in 1960, when Eleanor Roosevelt championed a third attempt for the presidency by Adlai Stevenson (who had been crushed by Ike in 1956). There is no precedent for a current First Lady to be heavily involved in a campaign (other than her own husband’s). But this year, Michelle Obama is Hillary Clinton’s super weapon.
Michelle is taking off the gloves, according to Newsmax.
First Lady Michelle Obama on Thursday launched a scathing takedown of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, calling his sexually aggressive comments about women “disgraceful” and “intolerable.”
“It doesn’t matter what party you belong to — Democrat, Republican, independent — no woman deserves to be treated this way. No one deserves this kind of abuse,” Obama told a rally for Democrat Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire.
“This wasn’t locker room banter. This was a powerful individual speaking freely and openly about sexually predatory behavior.”
In fact, Michelle is taking it personally.
In what immediately emerged as a landmark moment in the final stretch of the campaign, the first lady delivered an impassioned rebuke of Donald Trump — directly pitting her persona, her family, her stature, against Trump.
“I listen to all of this and I feel it so personally,” Obama said at a campaign rally in New Hampshire. “And I’m sure that many of you do, too, particularly the women. The shameful comments about our bodies, the disrespect of our intelligence. The belief you can do anything to a woman? It is cruel. It’s frightening. And the truth is, it hurts. It hurts.”
Trump’s problem is that Michelle is extremely popular.
“She exudes a kind of class and a kind of intelligent and compassion and strength that is seriously lacking in our political lives,” said Smith [Donna Smith, head of the Progressive Democrats of America], who noted she hasn’t always been a fan of President Obama. “I think Michelle Obama is such a strong messenger for women and girls and just speaks the truth, and does so in a way that is very direct, and you have no doubt about where she stands on anything.”
Trump has never hesitated to go after respected figures: just ask Megyn Kelly, Sen. John McCain and the Khan family. On Thursday, speaking to reporters on Air Force One, White House spokesman Eric Schultz practically dared Trump to turn his fire on Mrs. Obama.
“I can’t think of a bolder way for Donald Trump to lose even more standing than he already has,” said Schultz, than “by engaging the first lady of the United States.”
How popular is our First Lady? Her favorability rating is 79% (with only 8% disapproving). Compare that to her husband’s 52%, or Hillary Clinton’s 41.3%, or Donald Trump’s 35.8% (before the most recent charges). Melania Trump beats her husband, at 38%.
Even among First Ladies, Michelle Obama is only three points below the rating Laura Bush had at this point, higher than Hillary Clinton’s 66%, and much higher than that of Nancy Reagan’s 53%, Rosalyn Carter’s 59%, or Pat Nixon’s 54%.
Michelle Obama’s popularity is earned, according to Glenn Beck, commenting on Michelle’s speech about Trump’s behavior last Thursday.
Conservative talk show host Glenn Beck, who has long been a Trump critic, called it “the most effective political speech since Ronald Reagan” on his show on Friday.
“The audience was pin-drop quiet. It connected. Whether you like to believe it or not, whether I want to believe it or not, it connected. And it was powerful,” Beck said. The conservative talk show host called on his listeners to watch the speech to see for themselves the “devastating effects” it can have. “And I don’t mean on Donald Trump,” he added. “I mean on the conservative movement.” Why? Because it is an effective message to get women away from Republicans in general. “We had been talking about, ‘there is no war on women.’ You just handed them a war on women,” Beck said. “And if you listen to her words carefully, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, they are coopting women and it will work.”
So far, the only time Trump has challenged the First Lady was to make a false claim that Michelle had attacked Hillary in 2008.
He did invoke the first lady at Sunday’s presidential debate, though, falsely claiming that Michelle Obama attacked Clinton in television ads.
“I’ve gotten to see some of the most vicious commercials I’ve ever seen of Michelle Obama talking about you, Hillary,” Trump said.
PolitiFact rated Trump’s claim false, noting that the ad he appeared to reference came from a pro-Trump super PAC and that whether her remarks were aimed at Clinton are unclear.
“I think the only reference to the first lady that Donald Trump made was thoroughly debunked by every fact-checker who looked at it,” Schultz [principal deputy White House press secretary Eric Schultz] said.
Newsmax reports that Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, tried to respond to Michelle’s speech. Sort of.
“I have a lot of respect for the first lady and the job she has done for the American people over the last seven-and-a-half years,” the Indiana governor told the “CBS This Morning” host Charlie Rose, continuing that he does not believe the language described sexually predatory actions.
“I already spoke about my concerns about the language he used in that 11-year-old video,” said Pence. “But what he has made clear is that was talk, regrettable talk on his part. But that there were no actions.”
The Washington Times has been less respectful.
The first lady, who for eight years has transformed the White House into the last surviving vaudeville venue (who needs Mozart when you might get Kanye West), revealed herself to be almost terminally offended by Donald Trump in a stump speech for Hillary Thursday in New Hampshire.. . .
Some of the rappers who perform in the house once occupied by Lincoln and Adams, Jefferson, Jackson and FDR, spin rhymes about their bitches and their ho’s, the thrill of killing cops and bringing down all manner of bad things on America.
Trashy behavior is not only invited into the White House, but the first lady’s husband has bestowed honors on some of those who have tracked trash into the house. Neither should the first lady allow the girls to watch the video of Dad on his campaign plane, where he once displayed an erection through his pants to tempt and tease the lady reporters in the front seats.
But then, the article ended with this:
Something good could come from this tawdry presidential campaign that seems to have no end. Women, perhaps led by a past and present first lady, could lead a clean-up of the culture. God knows the culture needs it, and only women could get it done. But it will require more than throwing the first stone.
Rush Limbaugh, of course, took it a step further, according to Newsmax.
Limbaugh challenged that, noting that she and President Barack Obama have invited rappers to the White House, and their lyrics are not exactly complimentary of women.
“Men brag, and she is telling people that she doesn’t know men who brag,” Limbaugh said. “You know the people that have been to the White House? How about some of the rappers that talk about their b—- and their hos have performed such lyrics in the White House? But she doesn’t know men who talk and sing about sexual assault. It’s all over hip-hop lyrics and has been for a while!”
That’s the best Rush Limbaugh can do?? It’s an illustration of the fact that no one, not even the Republican Party’s loudest voice of all, dares besmirch Michelle Obama. By the way, Rush Limbaugh’s favorability rating is 19%. . .
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