The political world is buzzing this evening over a speech delivered earlier in the day by a woman who hasn’t been elected to a public office, nor is she seeking one.
The speech came from first lady Michelle Obama, who took up the cudgel for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton.
She stood before a crowd in Manchester, N. H., and blistered Republican nominee Donald J. Trump over his behavior toward women.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/300918-michelle-obama-becomes-clintons-most-powerful-weapon
“This is not normal. This is not politics as usual,” Obama said at one point. “This is disgraceful. It is intolerable.”
There was a whole lot more.
She peeled the bark off of Trump without naming him specifically. Everyone knew of whom she spoke.
I am reminded of something I said to members of my family … and perhaps to a few friends back in 2009 when Barack Obama took office as the 44th president of the United States.
My thought then was that the first lady would emerge as the president’s secret weapon. She would become his most potent political ally. Indeed, her public approval ratings have loomed far greater than the president’s have during his entire eight years in the White House.
Well, now she has emerged as Hillary Clinton’s most effective surrogate.
The first lady was taking aim at that infamous video recording of Trump talking with Billy Bush about what he does, or would like to do, to women.
“This was not just a lewd conversation, that wasn’t just locker room banter,” the first lady said. “This was a powerful individual speaking freely and openly about sexually predatory behavior and actually bragging about kissing and groping women — using language so obscene that many of us were worried about children hearing it when we turn on the TV.”
Michelle Obama has taken this stuff personally. As she should.
As for Trump and how he might respond to this blistering barrage, he needs to take great care.
“I can’t think of a bolder way for Donald Trump to lose even more standing than he already has,” said deputy White House press flack Eric Schultz, “than by engaging the first lady of the United States.”
