Nancy Benac of the Associated Press is thoroughly in the tank for Michelle Obama. Her latest article was headlined "First lady a not-so-secret campaign weapon." She began: "She's mingled barefoot among Aspen's elite, stirred a Vermont utility executive to tears and bucked up disenchanted New Yorkers." At the same time, the media can tout her for shopping at Target and for mingling with the Aspen elite. Michelle Obama the Target shopper wearing $42,000 diamond bracelets? Benac waited for paragraph 21 to mention that, where that kind of contrary information belongs.
Benac picked up the Obama campaign line -- she's an "enormous asset" -- and ran with it, barely noticing the idea that every re-election campaign counts on the First Lady, and every First Lady is more popular than her husband, and every First Lady can offer a personal portrait to warm people up to her husband's personal side. No, Michelle Obama causes people to tear up, and deeply motivates feminists like Gloria Steinem:
Campaign manager Jim Messina says Mrs. Obama is a unique ambassador for her husband because of her front-row seat during his first term and her knowledge of his character. "She was an enormous asset to the president traveling the country in 2008, and we expect that she'll play just as critical a role in 2012," he said.
Mary Powell, a Vermont utility executive, said her 15-year-old daughter used some of the money she inherited after her grandfather's recent death to attend the first lady's luncheon in Burlington last summer, and both mother and daughter came away from the event moved.
"I found myself tearing up a couple of times," Powell said. "She feels like the real deal."
Feminist leader Gloria Steinem, who appeared alongside Mrs. Obama at a New York fundraiser last week, describes the scene there as "a room full of New York women who are activists, who care deeply about the issues, many of whom are feeling that the president could have been stronger as a negotiator, that he's handcuffed by the right wing."
"You can imagine the feeling in a New York room," Steinem said. "Well, by the end of her speech, people were standing up cheering and ready to go to work. It was a transformation."
>>Help NewsBusters on the Obama Watch. Donate today.
Benac reported that since mid-May, Mrs. Obama has headlined more than a dozen fundraisers for the Democratic Party in lots of liberal sites like Berkeley, Aspen, and Burlington, Vermont -- AP doesn't call those "liberal" towns. They can be pricey: "On July 26, she hit a $1,000-and-up breakfast in Park City, Utah, and a $1,000-and-up luncheon in Aspen, Colo., where she kicked off her shoes and mingled in a tent on the lawn."
Her name's been on campaign e-mails that "I plan on doing" more than ever before on the campaign trail -- but Benac then quickly noted that "She's promised a 'rigorous' schedule — without taking too much time away from the Obamas' 10- and 13-year-old daughters. Inevitably, family obligations mean she's not out there as much as some Democratic partisans would like for one of the party's prime assets."
There are zero critics of the First Lady, and zero critics of President Obama in the AP story. Criticism is just mentioned in a brief burp, and then the tone of praise returns:
At the podium the first lady is both poised and cautious. She often speaks from a teleprompter and relies heavily on her stump speech, addressing largely sympathetic audiences at closed fundraisers. "My motto is: Do no harm," she joked to reporters when asked about her political role. Mrs. Obama surely has not forgotten the flak she caught during the 2008 campaign for her remark that for the first time in her adult life she was proud of the United States. She later issued a clarification saying she had always been proud of her country.
Benac assured readers:
Mrs. Obama is more at ease as a campaign surrogate now, after years in the spotlight. At the start of each appearance she gives a shout-out to prominent locals, singling out "amazing" politicians and "favorite" people. Trying to humanize her husband, she tells audience after audience about the quiet moments, after their daughters are asleep, when Obama hunches over letters from struggling Americans. "I see the sadness and the worry creasing his face," she tells her listeners.
He's sad and worried -- and outside the campaign rhetoric, the economy's still in the dumps. Being sad about it doesn't make you a "prime asset" to the country.
GOP consultant Rich Galen is quoted in paragraph 23, but not to say a discouraging word. "First ladies can scoop up considerable amounts of cash and considerable amounts of good will," he said. "There's almost no downside."
There's certainly no downside when you have Nancy Benac writing your press releases and calling them AP articles.
