In Iowa, Michelle Obama picks up campaign pace: "We can do something special."

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: In Iowa, the Candidate's Wife Introduces the 'Real Obamas'
Peter Slevin

ROCKWELL CITY, Iowa--From Waterloo to Iowa Falls and Fort Dodge to Boone, Michelle Obama picked up her campaign pace this week, telling enthusiastic audiences that her husband can change the nation. She urged a group seated on folding chairs in a library basement here, "Just dream. If you reach into your hearts and act without fear, we can do something special."

Sen. Barack Obama, well behind Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) in national polls, is intensifying his efforts in the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire, where strategists hope to raise the Illinois Democrat's profile and build steam after months when Clinton's position has grown only stronger.

Michelle Obama's role, as she describes it, is to introduce "the real Obamas, not the resumes." In a stump speech that she varies and delivers without notes, she tells of her upbringing in a working class family in Chicago. She goes on to say that, after Princeton University and Harvard Law School, she met this biracial guy from Hawaii with a funny name who overcame her skepticism by being authentic and principled -- and cute.

Mindful of doubts about Barack Obama's experience and toughness, she has added riffs that guide her listeners through his work as a community organizer, public interest lawyer, University of Chicago constitutional law professor and 11 years in elective office. Experience should not be equated with time spent in Washington, she says, arguing that old Washington hands led the nation into war because of their "inability to see the forest for the trees."

"We need someone who understands and respects the Constitution, particularly as we have seen it obliterated," Michelle Obama told more than 100 people at a Fort Dodge art museum Wednesday. Noting that skeptics ask whether he can take the GOP's best shot and still win, she reminded her audience of the political rough and tumble of his adopted town: "Look, we live in Chicago. Need I say more?"...

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/10/11/in_iowa_the_candidates_wife_in.html?hpid=topnews