Michelle Obama Gives a Hand to the Democrats

Can the Mom-In-Chief save the Democrats? With this title, some of the most important media giants asked themselves yesterday if Michelle Obama would be able to fight off the menace of a humiliating defeat that the majority of polls predict for candidates from this party.

Just three weeks out from the midterm elections, the Democratic Party decided to lend the help of the president’s wife who, in contrast with her husband, enjoys a robust popularity with more than a 65 percent approval rating in the polls.

This is a little more than 20 percentage points more than Barack Obama, who just yesterday dropped even further to an approval rating of 43 percent — the lowest approval rating since he took office in January 2009, according to the poll data shared yesterday by Reuters-Ipsos.

A Good Image

Michelle has decided to put her good image into action to improve the chances of various Democratic candidates who are in trouble. She has entered for the first time into the fray in the states of Wisconsin and Illinois to try to salvage the election that has become a referendum on the Obama presidency.

Yesterday’s Reuters-Ipsos poll confirmed the battered image of the Democrats, showing a landslide victory for Republicans in the Nov. 2 election with a total of 227 seats in the House of Representatives, while Democrats drop to 208. In the Senate, the same poll suggests that Democrats will barely maintain control with 52 seats and 48 Republican seats. According to the survey, 48 percent of likely voters will choose a Republican candidate on Nov. 2, while 44 percent will bet on a Democrat.

Michelle Obama is attempting to bring back the support in the states of Wisconsin and Illinois that now seems to have abandoned the Democrats after a year of paralysis in Congress and with unemployment numbers not seen in the last quarter century (9.6 percent).

“And the truth is, we have that same chance — and we have that same responsibility — today. The chance to continue the progress we’ve made. The chance to finish what we’ve started,” Michelle said to an audience of mostly women who came to support the Democratic senator from Wisconsin, Russell D. Feingold, who faces a tough election in seeking a fourth term.

In her first speech since taking part in the 2008 presidential campaign, Michelle Obama acknowledged to the audience that, unlike almost two years ago, “that dream feels like it’s slipping away,” largely due to the frustration of millions of families who still do not see the changes promised by Barack Obama when he reached the White House.

“Even before this recession hit, for too many people, all that hard work wasn’t adding up like it used to. For years now, middle class families have seen their incomes falling while the cost of things like health care and college tuition have gone through the roof,” Michelle said, acknowledging that the agenda for change promised by her husband is still long in coming, because of a recession inherited from the previous administration that has delayed the economic recovery and the creation of new jobs.

“We’re not here just because of an election. … We’re here to renew that promise. We’re here to restore that dream,” said Michelle Obama, who has become the new hitter for the Democrats and the White House in an attempt try to prevent an electoral meltdown that would leave Barack Obama’s agenda of change at the mercy of the Republicans.