In
2008, some controversial remarks threatened to derail her husband's
election campaign. Yet four years later, Michelle Obama is widely
regarded as a political star.
When Michelle Obama takes the stage on Tuesday night at the
Democratic National Convention, she does so as a popular public figure
with bipartisan appeal.
But four years ago, on the campaign trail in 2008, Mrs Obama was labelled by her critics as angry, bitter and militant.
Statements from her thesis at Princeton, in which
she examined the effect of being black at a predominantly white college, saw her portrayed as obsessed with race.
Campaigning for her husband in Wisconsin, she told supporters
that she was proud of America "for the first time in my adult life". It
was a comment that dogged her throughout the summer.
"She was depicted as being unpatriotic and un-American," says
Mia Moody-Ramirez, a professor of journalism, PR and new media at
Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
But then, at the Democratic convention in Denver, she gave a
speech introducing a new version of Michelle Obama - one that would help
portray her as a loving wife, mother and daughter, and would help
reshape her image into the one that is much-loved today.
Michelle Obama's prominent - and some say distracting - role
on the campaign trail in 2008 came despite her initial displeasure at
her husband's political ambition.
Michelle Obama's 2008 speech
As I tuck that little girl and her little sister into bed at
night, I think about how one day, they'll have families of their own.
And one day, they - and your sons and daughters - will tell their own
children about what we did together in this election. They'll tell them
how this time, we listened to our hopes, instead of our fears. How this
time, we decided to stop doubting and to start dreaming. How this time,
in this great country - where a girl from the South Side of Chicago can
go to college and law school, and the son of a single mother from Hawaii
can go all the way to the White House - we committed ourselves to
building the world as it should be.
Source: Huffington Post
"There is a pattern - at
different points in their lives, she is very sceptical and hesitant
about entering into political races, and once she does [back her
husband], she's his strongest advocate," say Jodi Kantor, a reporter for
the New York Times and author of The Obamas.
And in the campaign of 2008, Michelle Obama was bringing the full force of her personality and her training to bear.
"People who have known her for a long time say she is a
naturally frank, forceful person. She's a Harvard-trained lawyer. Her
tendency was to go in and argue her husband's case," says Kantor.
But the effect on the public was less than positive, in part
because political wives normally take on a less prominent role, and in
part because Michelle Obama was forging new ground.
"There was this perception that she was a problem for the
campaign," says Bonnie Dow, an associate professor of communication at
Vanderbilt University.
"The outlines of that problem are so easily tied to negative
stereotypes about African-American women - that they are matriarchal,
pushy loud."
When it became clear that Mrs Obama's campaign style was a
detriment to her husband, she and the campaign team sought to modify her
image, from dogged lawyer to loving mother and wife.
"Obama advisers put a lot of effort into tailoring her image.
They brought through maternal warmth and left behind her bluntness,"
says Kantor.
"I don't think the Michelle Obama we see on the campaign trail is fake, she's a highly edited version."
That tailoring began over the summer of 2008, and in some
ways made its public debut at the convention in Denver. Introduced by
her brother, Craig Robinson, Michelle Obama gave a speech about her
husband that her supporters thought was warm, funny and loving .
"When we go into the DNC... and she gives this speech,
introducing the president by saying 'I stand here as a wife, mother,
daughter, sister', you see the beginnings of a very purposeful
rehabilitation of this image," says Dow.
The convention speech helped accelerate Mrs Obama's
popularity, and by the time of her husband's inauguration in January of
2009 she was on her way to becoming a media darling.
Michelle Obama's 2008 evolution
- February 2007: Barack Obama declares his candidacy
- 18 February 2008: Says that she is "proud of my country" for the first time in her adult life
- February 2008: Princeton thesis published online
- July 2008: New Yorker cover features machine gun-toting Michelle Obama fist-bumping her husband, dressed in Muslim attire
- August 2008: Speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Denver
- October 2008: Appears on a late night talk show in a J Crew sweater set, which quickly sells out
- November 2008: Barack Obama wins election
"On inauguration day she stepped
out in eye-catching dresses, and her children looked so adorable in
their little winter coats and tights," says Katherine Jellison, who has
studied first ladies as a professor of history at Ohio University.
"She came across on that occasion as the kind of first lady
that I think America is largely most comfortable with - the devoted wife
and mother."
While Barack Obama's approval ratings began dropping within
his first months in office, Michelle Obama's have continued to rise.
When Gallup last measured the
two Obamas head-to-head, in May 2012, Mrs Obama had a 66% approval rating, while her husband had 52% approval.
Once she became the first lady, she adopted projects with a maternal focus, a role embraced by the women who came before her.
"Every issue that she takes up is linked to children and to
family - she doesn't even do that many issues that are specifically
linked to women who aren't mothering," says Dow.
While former librarian Laura Bush promoted literacy, Mrs
Obama worked on projects for military families and Let's Move, an
initiative to fight childhood obesity. In that role, she has planted a
vegetable garden in the White House, appeared on reality TV to promote
weight loss and written a book about her gardening success.
"Once she got into office, she realised that this was about
[Barack Obama] and it had to just be about him, or there was going to be
a problem. She focused on issues that did not put her in the forefront
and did not overshadow him," says Allison Samuels, a senior writer at
Newsweek and author of What Would Michelle Obama Do?
The Obamas have reprised their 2008 campaign double act this time around
This election cycle, Democrats hope Michelle Obama can be a
powerful weapon in the re-election arsenal, not a liability to be
managed.
Some Republicans number among her fans but over the years her
detractors have found fault with her clothes, her projects and her
views.
Her speech on Tuesday in 2012 will seek to convince the few
and crucial undecided voters that her husband's plan is the best for the
country. And in an era when many families are worried about paying the
bills, Samuels says Michelle Obama's message may resonate more than her
Republican counterpart, Ann Romney.
"Ann Romney was talking in theory, whereas Michelle had to go
back to work quickly after every child because they didn't have the
money," she says. "When she talks about the issues of women and poor
women, it's more authentic."
To counter that argument, her critics would point to
reports that she spent $6,800 on a jacket
when Americans are finding it hard to make ends meet. And Ann Romney,
who has fought breast cancer and multiple sclerosis, appealed directly
to women when she gave a speech that ignited the Republican party's gala
last week.
Just because Michelle Obama is no longer a political lightning rod, it doesn't mean she has lost her political pull.
"Even though she is able to look like she is above the fray,
of course she is political. She's out there campaigning, she's out there
fundraising, she's one of the most popular political figures in the
country," says Kantor.
This week, she will try to use the power of her popularity to bolster her husband's hopes of winning a second term in office.
"Remember the contradiction of first lady-hood is that the
less overly political a first lady seems, the more politically effective
she is," says Kantor.
An
armed man waves his rifle as buildings and cars are engulfed in flames
after being set on fire inside the U.S. consulate compound in Benghazi
late on September 11, 2012.
A
rebel fighter retreats for cover as enemy fire targets the rebel
position during clashes at the Moaskar front line, one of the
battlefields in the Karmal Jabl neighborhood, of Aleppo, Syria, October
24, 2012.
