By Mark Silva
September 24, 2008
With the Democratic nominee for president away in Hawaii to see his "gravely ill'' grandmother, Michelle Obama campaigned for Barack Obama in Ohio today.The candidate's wife distilled a message that Obama has attempted to drive home about the difference between himself and Republican rival John McCain during a tough time for working families and people without jobs or health insurance - McCain, the Obama campaign maintains, "doesn't get it.'' Obama, his wife said, "gets it.''"What I know is, my husband Barack Obama gets it,'' she said. "He gets it."The campaigning spouse also demonstrated why the Democrat wasn't forfeiting all that much, politically, by spending more than a day off the campaign trail with less than two weeks to go - though certainly there could be an empathetic edge to be gained in the trip to see grandma."She's doing OK,'' Michelle Obama said of the grandmother whom they call "Toot.'' She helped raise Barack, she noted."She's tough. Her birthday is on Sunday... I asked Barack the other day, how are you doing this (campaigning)? You are tough. He said, I got my toughness from Toot...."So, 11 days to go,'' she said in Columbus, with the flair of a natural stump speaker, the case-closing argument of a lawyer and the passion of a wife, mother and daughter of a shift worker going through an historic campaign. "That's how we greet each other in the campaign - we say, 'How ya' doin?'... 'Eleven.'"I come here first and foremost as a wife who loves her husband,'' she said. "I know in my heart, with no hesitation, that he will be an extraordinary president.''She arrived in Ohio as a mother, and a daughter as well, she said. What's at stake in this election is her children's future, she said. What got them this far are their families."What my father and my background reminds me of deeply is that is the American dream that we are fighting for,'' she said. "When I think of the issues that are at stake in this election... how we're going to fix this broken economy... how we're going to fix a broken health care system... how we're going to end this war, how we're going to clean up the environment, all these issues to me aren't political issues. They are personal."We're all feeling it now,'' she said. "And if you're not feeling it, you're living real close to someone who is.''"What I know is, my husband Barack Obama gets it,'' she said. "He gets it.''
With the Democratic nominee for president away in Hawaii to see his "gravely ill'' grandmother, Michelle Obama campaigned for Barack Obama in Ohio today.
The candidate's wife distilled a message that Obama has attempted to drive home about the difference between himself and Republican rival John McCain during a tough time for working families and people without jobs or health insurance - McCain, the Obama campaign maintains, "doesn't get it.'' Obama, his wife said, "gets it.''
"What I know is, my husband Barack Obama gets it,'' she said. "He gets it."
The campaigning spouse also demonstrated why the Democrat wasn't forfeiting all that much, politically, by spending more than a day off the campaign trail with less than two weeks to go - though certainly there could be an empathetic edge to be gained in the trip to see grandma.
"She's doing OK,'' Michelle Obama said of the grandmother whom they call "Toot.'' She helped raise Barack, she noted.
"She's tough. Her birthday is on Sunday... I asked Barack the other day, how are you doing this (campaigning)? You are tough. He said, I got my toughness from Toot....
"So, 11 days to go,'' she said in Columbus, with the flair of a natural stump speaker, the case-closing argument of a lawyer and the passion of a wife, mother and daughter of a shift worker going through an historic campaign. "That's how we greet each other in the campaign - we say, 'How ya' doin?'... 'Eleven.'
"I come here first and foremost as a wife who loves her husband,'' she said. "I know in my heart, with no hesitation, that he will be an extraordinary president.''
She arrived in Ohio as a mother, and a daughter as well, she said. What's at stake in this election is her children's future, she said. What got them this far are their families.
"What my father and my background reminds me of deeply is that is the American dream that we are fighting for,'' she said. "When I think of the issues that are at stake in this election... how we're going to fix this broken economy... how we're going to fix a broken health care system... how we're going to end this war, how we're going to clean up the environment, all these issues to me aren't political issues. They are personal.
"We're all feeling it now,'' she said. "And if you're not feeling it, you're living real close to someone who is.''
"What I know is, my husband Barack Obama gets it,'' she said. "He gets it.''
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