Profession First Lady, the other side of the President

“The most powerful unelected and unpaid office to support the President from outside the political battle”. This is how Anita Bevacqua McBride, chief of Laura Bush’s staff from 2005 to 2009, interviewee by the press agency Adnkronos, describes the “hard work” of the First Lady. In fact, wives have an increasing importance in the convention because they have the duty to introduce the human side of the candidate. Their intervention has a great impact on the electorate. For example, Laura Bush’s speech at the 2004 convention represented a turning point in the campaign because she stressed the difficulties and the perturbations of being a president during a war in contrast to whom who thought that Bush desired the war. Some commentators think that Laura’s speech was decisive in the Bush re-election.

In the USA there are opinion pulls regarding the popularity of the wives of the candidate. In the last campaign, Ann Romney got 37% of votes in favour, while Michelle Obama obtained 43% of favourable votes. The two wives are extremely different: Ann embodies the typical republican values of family and patriotism, instead Michelle represent the woman who was able to conciliate family and career.

In 2010, Michelle launched Let’s Move, a campaign to bring together community leaders, teachers, doctors, nurses, moms and dads in a nationwide effort to tackle the challenge of childhood obesity. In 2011, Mrs. Obama and Dr. Jill Biden together launched Joining Forces, a nationwide initiative that mobilizes all sectors of society to give support to military families’. Joining Forces was fundamental to answering the President’s challenge to hire or train 100,000 unemployed veterans and military spouses by 2013. Many others were the activities that Michelle carried out and this business surely strengthened the positive image of President Obama.

First Ladies act behind the scene and often influence President’s policy. I like Michelle Obama and I like also the idea that the USA is ruled by the Obama’s.

Susanna Gallini