Her Jay Leno appearance will be the first of many designed to get the country to fall back in love with the Obamas
Michelle Obama can teach you how to Dougie. Which is not to say that she would – her schedule seems pretty full these days, including last night's appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno – but she could. The First Lady popped up unannounced at a middle school last spring to promote her childhood obesity initiative and wound up doing the Dougie, the hot-in-2010, lean-and-rock dance craze popularised by Cali Swag District. Footage of Obama getting her groove on populated YouTube and invaded the day's news cycle, burnishing her well-earned reputation for being the nation's first "cool" first lady.
It's no wonder that Michelle's favourability ratings, which are essentially still the same as when the Obamas moved into the White House, have consistently outpaced her husband's. While President Obama's favourability numbers have faltered as Americans take polarised positions on his governance, Michelle has stayed steady. Judging from her appearance on The Tonight Show, her first since her husband took office, the Obama campaign is well aware of Michelle's halo effect and plans to deploy her early and often. The ostensible goal? To sell the idea that you can love (and vote for) the Obamas – that awesome, gorgeous couple that plays basketball and does the Dougie – even if you don't necessarily love Barack's policies.
On the same night Florida voted to allot its delegates to Mitt Romney, the president's better half paraded on to Jay Leno's stage looking as resplendent and fashion-forward as ever. In a shimmery gold blouse and checkered green skirt, Michelle chatted about life in the White House. From the red velvet cake her mother baked for her birthday, to the challenges of raising normal children in such a singular environment, Michelle charmed her way through two segments of the show. When Leno brought up the Republican debates, she sidestepped matter-of-factly: "We don't really watch that stuff," she said. Then: "We wake up every day and think about what this country needs," she said, before speaking at length about her work with military families.
That the first lady used the word "we" so frequently was interesting, and telling. Rather than positioning herself as the supportive but hands-off spouse, Michelle spoke as an active participant, a sounding board and pillow-talk strategist. The message was clear: this is a package deal – if you like me, you should like my husband too. This came minutes after she provided one of the romantic asides that make Barack and Michelle worshippers swoon. "He sings to me all the time," she said of Barack, who had a Dougie moment of his own when he sang Al Green's Let's Stay Together at a fundraiser in Harlem. It was a perfectly calibrated appearance, a just-right blend of politics and panache, and as usual, Michelle emerged looking both regal and approachable.
Predictably, there was no mention of The Obamas, New York Times correspondent Jodi Kantor's recently released book, an account of the couple's bumpy transition into the world's most powerful position. When segments of Kantor's book painted Michelle as a strident interloper, she fought back in interview segments, asserting that she never had friction with Obama's former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, as Kantor reported. The White House response to the book was swift and dismissive, and indicative of how important the Obama campaign regards Michelle as a tool to get their man re-elected.
Her Tonight Show appearance will probably be the first of many designed to get the country to fall back in love with the Obamas, even amid fierce debate over whether or not the president deserves a second term. If Michelle is as potent a political weapon as the Obama campaign seems to think she is, there will be plenty of time to Dougie on election night.