Obama, with Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s assistance, makes the fist bump safe for Middle America. / ABC
The Michelle Obama image-enhancement tour kicked seriously into gear today. Facing Internet smears, “baby mama” snarks, “terrorist fist jab” references and opposition attacks that have cast her as basically Angela Davis in a sleeveless dress, the would-be First Lady is to appear on an US Weekly cover, “Why Barack Loves Her,” which touts her as a “down-to-earth mom.” In a New York Times article today, she dryly dismissed the rumor that there exists a videotape of her railing about “whitey” in a speech: “’You are amazed sometimes at how deep the lies can be,’ she says in an interview. Referring to a character in a 1970s sitcom, she adds: ‘I mean, “whitey”? That’s something that George Jefferson would say.'”
Continuing the effort to present herself as the public as a little less George and a little more Weezie, this morning the candidate’s wife appeared on that beacon of stay-at-home moms, The View.
Obama was billed as a co-host, but spent most of the show as more of a co-guest, being quizzed by Barbara, Whoopi and company on a range of political and personal issues. She came off good-humored and disarming, and pulled off her first and perhaps most important p.r. coup simply by showing up, joking that “I have to be greeted properly” and fist-bumping each of the View hostesses, without detonating an explosive belt.
Sseriously, the appearance played into the Obamas’ campaign to “reintroduce” the candidate’s wife, a lawyer who can be outspoken and has been cast by detractors as a negative-minded scold. (Update: Standard disclosure: I voted for her husband.) So she talked about her brother, a coach at Oregon State (“Go, Beavers!”); explained her preference for sleeveless dresses (“It’s fun to look pretty”); weighed in on The View’s pantyhose pro-or-con discussion (she eschews them: “It feels better… and they rip”); and—doubtless mindful of The View’s white-suburban-women contingent at home—made a point of praising Hillary Clinton to the skies for “taking [hits] so that when my girls come along, they won’t have to feel it so much.” She presented herself less as an Ivy-educated lawyer than as a mom, talking about going to potlucks and recitals—just like you, stay-at-home moms!—and about the need to keep life “normal” for her daughters during the campaign.
Political gaming and image-handling cynicism aside, Obama was a good fit for the show, coming across as naturally bantering rather than scripted. In fact, I suspect she’d be an even better View panelist if her husband weren’t running for president. She strikes me as a woman who’s funnier than she’s allowed to be on the campaign trail, with a sense of humor that’s a little sardonic (e.g., that great George Jefferson line), which is appealing but can misfire in public with less irony-attuned voters.
Here, she was as open and funny as she could get away with being, self-effacing and gently mocking of her husband (“Kids are drawn to Barack. I think it’s because his name is easy to say”) but mindful of not crossing any lines. When gambling came up during an interview with Matthew Broderick, she mentioned an anecdote about her mother winning $17,000 on quarter slots—”Change we can believe in!” Joy Behar cracked—but quickly added: “We don’t endorse gambling.” And when Whoopi Goldberg praised her for providing a positive media role model for black women—”I’m talking dark-black women”—whom Whoopi said were usually shown on TV with missing teeth and gold caps, Obama had the sense to smile silently.
Among the other highlights:
* She sidestepped the question of whether Hillary should be her husband’s running mate: “I think the one thing that a nominee earns is the right to pick a vice president that they think will best reflect their vision of the country, and I’m just glad that I will have nothing to do with it.”
* In a show-closing segment with a dietitian about breakfast foods, she tossed out a question about pomegranate juice—uh-oh, is pomegranate an elitist juice?—but scored regular-folks points by noting that the Obamas “are bacon people.” (In the process throwing more cold water on those secret-Muslim smears!)
* Noting that she was originally worried if the mean game of politics was the right career for her “sweet, empathetic” husband, she stopped to assure the panel—cracking up in laughter—that she did not say “sweet and pathetic.” Gaffe averted!
Probably the most important p.r. move Obama made, however, was to directly address her much criticized quote about being “really proud” of America for the first time in her adult life at the voters’ embrace of her husband. She meant it in the sense of “having pride in the political process,” she said, an explanation she’s given before. But probably more effectively, she cast it in a way that made the remark—and any general criticisms about her public statements—about passion, not grievance: her problem sometimes, she said, is that “I put my heart on my sleeve.”
Or on her sleevelessness, as the case may be.