The Obama campaign is planning to significantly increase the role of First lady Michelle Obama in the president’s re-election campaign, starting with a new initiative being spearheaded by the first lady called the “It Takes One” program focused on persuading Obama supporters to bring along others to get involved in the re-election effort.
Michelle is an increasingly important weapon for the Obama campaign because she is so popular with voters but with many fewer of the downsides and negative reactions that the president brings. Mrs. Obama has acknowledged as much herself in interviews, but she says that’s because she doesn’t have to make any of the tough decisions that her husband does.
With old pictures of the first couple flashing on the screen, the first lady, lovely in a bright red dress, brings viewers back to her husband’s first campaign for the Illinois state legislature, when she and Barack would bring friends along as they went out to collect signatures to get him on the ballot.
“That one on one outreach, that belief that one person can inspire another, that has powered every single one of Barack’s campaigns,” she says to the camera. “And this time around, it’s going to be more important than ever before.”
“Every time you take action to move this country forward, we’re asking you to inspire one more person to join you as well,” she says.
The first lady said this election will likely be closer than 2008, so it was even more important for supporters to get involved.
“In the end, it could all come down to those last few thousand votes in a single state,” she says. That one new voter you register in your precinct, that one neighbor you help get to the polls on Nov. 6, that could make all the difference…That could be the difference between waking up on Nov. 7 and feeling the promise of four more years or asking yourself, ‘Could I have done more?'”
The campaign said the first lady would be the leader of the “It Takes One” effort, using her image and her popularity to increase excitement as she travels across the country over the next three-and-a-half months recruiting volunteers, giving speeches and stopping by voter registration events..
The Obama campaign said Mrs. Obama would lead the “It Takes One” effort, which will include digital media, advertising and grassroots organizing. Campaign officials said Mrs. Obama would be the face of the effort and personally participate in many “It Takes One” events as she travels the country, recruiting neighborhood team leaders, speaking to groups of women to ask them to volunteer and stopping by voter registration events.
The formal launch of the initiative will be tomorrow in Virginia, where she is scheduled to speak at a campaign event for women in Charlottesville and to grassroots supporters in Fredericksburg.
