First Lady Michelle Obama, considered one of her husbands biggest weapons, made Florida the latest stop on her schedule to remind voters of all that her husband has done. But the visit was not without controversy: Republican members of the Miami-Dade school board were adamantly against her coming.
“The use of public schools whose only focus should be to educate our children for political gain is downright wrong,” said board member Renier Diaz de la Portilla. “Don’t these liberals have boundaries? Our schools are places for learning, not places for politicking.”
Carlos Curbelo also questioned the motivations of the Obama campaign for using the high school. “Allowing the first lady of the United States to use one of our schools explicitly to benefit the president’s reelection campaign is inappropriate and sends the wrong message to our students, employees, and to taxpayers – even if the president’s campaign is willing to pay for all costs resulting from the event,” he said in a statement.
The board members pushed for the event to be cancelled but were unsuccessful. Ironically, the complaints came the same day Mitt Romney was speaking at a high school in Colorado.
Florida is considered to be a major battleground state and holds 29 Electoral College votes. President Obama holds a very narrow lead over Mitt Romney in the polls so Florida votes could be a deciding factor in this election.
The first lady made her appearance at Barbara Goleman Senior High School in Miami to recruit support for her husband’s reelection and to encourage people to register to vote. According to the Miami Herald the first lady spoke of her husband’s work to create jobs and the values of his healthcare reform initiative, including easier access to birth control and allowing over 6 million young adults to remain on their parents’ insurance until they turn 26.
She told her audience to register to vote and to get people close them to do the same. “Multiply yourselves,” she told them. As she closed her speech, she posed a question to her the crowd of a thousand. “Let me ask you one more question?” she asked. “Are you all in? ‘Cause I’m in. I’m so way in, and I am so fired up.” She was met with enthusiastic applause.
