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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

First lady returns to campaign trail

Michelle Obama stumping for vulnerable Democrats

Steven Thomma McClatchy

MILWAUKEE – As polls show her among the most popular political figures in the land, Michelle Obama returned to the campaign trail Wednesday for the first time since her husband’s successful 2008 bid for the presidency.

“Now to tell you the truth, this thing here, I don’t do this very often,” the first lady said to laughs as she opened a campaign swing to help embattled Democrats, starting with Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., who’s fighting for a fourth term and is behind in the polls.

“In fact, I haven’t really been on the trail since a little campaign you might remember a couple of years ago, this cute, tall, skinny guy,” she said.

The White House hopes that Michelle Obama can help reignite some of the passion from that 2008 campaign in time to get more Democrats and left-leaning independents to vote in Senate races that the party is in very real danger of losing.

After speaking at a fundraising lunch for Feingold, she headed to Illinois to help Alexi Giannoulias, the Democrat running for the Senate seat once held by her husband. Next, she planned to travel to Colorado to campaign for incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet. The first lady is scheduled to meet up with her husband Sunday in Ohio.

In Wisconsin, she lauded Feingold for supporting the health care overhaul signed into law by her husband, and also for sometimes disagreeing with the president.

“When my husband was here in Wisconsin a couple of weeks ago, he talked about how independent and outspoken Russ is, and how Russ doesn’t always agree with him,” she said. “So Russ, that’s something that you and I have in common.”

Feingold trails Republican Ron Johnson by 7.3 percentage points, according to an averaging of recent polls by RealClearPolitics.com.

Polls consistently show Michelle Obama at or near the top of the list of most popular political figures in the country – more popular than her husband, and considerably more popular than any national Republican figure such as Sarah Palin.