More Tracks from Us Weekly: "Vote For My Spouse"

A four page spread in last weeks Us Weekly featured letters written from Michelle Obama & Bill Clinton detailing why you should vote for their spouse. It's a REALLY interesting case of direct surrogacy, oxymoronic as that may be.

A link summarizing the article can be found here: http://www.usmagazine.com/bill-clinton-michelle-obama-write-pieces-for-us-weekly

The full article won't be online until a new issue is out, but I'll post a link when one is available.

The Other Campaign Spouse

While Bill Clinton has been at the front of much of the primary politics thus far this year, the New York Times published an interesting speech on Barak Obama’s wife, Michelle Obama. She brings a number of important assets to his campaign such as:

-strong oratory skills which allow her to give effective speeches, campaigning in different cities than Barak

-an emphasis upon unity rather than focusing on things like race and gender

-a bluntness that Barak certainly does not exude in his campaign

-a sense of humor that many people enjoy, though not always well-liked

This story is another excellent example of another possible reason, on top of recent developments such as Clinton’s campaign manager resigning, that Barak seems to have gained much of the momentum in the Democratic primaries. Bill Clinton’s campaigning for Hillary was generally attacking Barak directly, drawing a host of media attention, much of it negative. Behind the scenes, however, Michelle Obama has been working hard to help advance Barak’s campaign without drawing the same sort of negative fire.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/us/politics/14michelle.html?ei=5065&en=9f0714917e0c6d7e&ex=1203570000&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

Women for Obama

In discussing last Sunday's high-profile Obama event here in L.A., Andrew Rosenthal writes for the New York Times: "Forty-eight hours before the closest thing America has ever had to a national primary, four extraordinary women put on the best campaign rally I’ve seen in 20 years of covering presidential politics." The praise continues to flow as Rosenthal calls the event "pitch-perfect" and effusively recaps the program, which featured a powerhouse lineup of Michelle Obama, Caroline Kennedy, Oprah Winfrey, and Maria Shriver.

It seems like a smart move for Obama's campaign to highlight such esteemed women who deeply support the candidate since women are a group that may yet rally for Clinton. Oprah, a living legend whose devoted followers treat her every word as edict, took the opportunity to re-frame the "gender versus race" issue. Instead of feeling tied to one candidate by biographical stats, Oprah urged voters to celebrate these landmark circumstances and consider that they actually "are free from the constraints of gender and race." It will be interesting to see how women vote tomorrow considering the recent upswing of Obama momentum.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/04/opinion/04mon4.html?em&ex=1202360400&en=2b69974241588f95&ei=5087%0A