Michelle Obama Campaigning for President

By M. Catharine Evans

The First Lady hit the campaign trail Thursday addressing a group of 550 supporters at the Grand Hyatt in Washington. Mrs. Obama told the predominantly female audience "Now, more than ever before, we need to finish what we've started and we need your help...we are nowhere finished winning the future." Yikes!

Michelle dusted off her stump speech from ‘08, bared those arms and made it clear in front of fellow speakers, Anita Dunn, Kathleen Sebelius and Valerie Jarrett that she's in it for the long haul. Conservative pundits who contend President Obama's record is so bad anybody can beat him better pay attention. Sarah Palin's not the only woman with "a fire in her belly."

The mom-in-chief recalled her time as a reluctant warrior in 2008 as she reminisced about being "barefoot in the grass" in Iowa just "talking to folks."

And today, as we look ahead to the next part of this journey, I just want to take you back to how it all began, at least in my mind.

Now, I have to be honest with you, and many of you know this, when Barack first started talking about running for President, I wasn't exactly enthusiastic about the idea.

So it took some convincing on Barack's part, and by "some," I mean a lot.

Don't believe it. The lady dubbed "Barack's Rock" told a Vanity Fair reporter in December of 2007, "We need to be in there now, while we're still fresh and open and fearless and bold." She advised her husband in the early days of his first presidential campaign to "Feel-don't think. Get visceral."

Michelle's brother, Craig Robinson, portrayed his sister as the ultimate competitor. Whether playing "Scrabble, Password or Stratego" she was fired up and wanted to win.

President Obama himself told an interviewer in 2008 that Michelle is "smarter...and a little meaner than I am." A Harvard law classmate Verna Williams experienced Mrs. Obama's tenacious self-will first hand. As students, Williams and Obama engaged in many discussions about the plight of African-Americans in the United States. The debates must have been heated. Williams told a WSJ reporter "She's got a temper.

Conservatives may have had enough of Michelle Obama in the ‘08 Obama/Media campaign to last a lifetime but she will not be defeated easily. She helped to raise $2 million on Thursday touting her husband's "accomplishments" with a straight face.

I mean, we've gone from an economy on the brink of collapse to an economy that is starting to grow again.

We're helping middle-class families by cutting taxes--working to stop credit card companies from taking advantage of people.

Because of health reform, millions of people will finally be able to afford a doctor. Their insurance companies won't be able to drop their coverage when they're sick.

We're working to live up to our founding values of freedom and equality.

We're working to keep our country safe and to restore our standing in the world.

Selling this fairy tale won't be easy but the First Lady can put lipstick on a pig better than her husband. Later Michelle, the contender, warned her supporters that "we're playing a long game here...It is going to be hard. It's designed that way." Then she asked the crowd "Are you in?" In unison they yelled back "Yes."

How could they refuse?

M. Catharine Evans writes for Potter Williams Report