Michelle Obama

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – In a long, impassioned speech last night, Michelle Obama tried one last time before the primary here to combat the idea that she and her husband were elitists, and excoriated Hillary Clinton for her gas-tax “holiday” proposal and her 2002 vote on Iraq.

The personal slights aimed at her family seemed to irk Ms. Obama most of all.

“See, there’s a whole lot of talk in this race about elitism and people being out of touch,” she told a crowd of approximately 1,500 in the Ovens auditorium.  read more »

INDIANAPOLIS—Barack Obama has become a family values candidate.

Wracked by questions over his beliefs, patriotism and values following the most tumultuous passage of his campaign, Mr. Obama has sought solace – and a new story line – in family.

Over the past few days, Mr. Obama steeped his speeches in talk about his grandparents and parents and physically evoked the imagery of idyllic Americana by campaigning with his wife and two daughters around picnic tables and playgrounds.  read more »

Big moves in tab-land! The unstoppable Janice Min has signed up two new high profile writers for Us Weekly, her glossy juggernaut of Brangelina speculation and Hills entrail-reading. The new issue (Inside Beyoncé's Wedding!) features articles by Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama. The articles are each teased on the cover with "Vote For My Spouse!"

Mr. Clinton is the author of 2004's My Life, an autobiography. He has also contributed to The New York Times on April 29, 2007 and August 22, 2006. Mrs. Obama is currently being courted by several publishers interested in her work, according to The Observer's Leon Neyfakh.

Laura Bush is writing a children’s book with her daughter. Publishers in New York want Michelle Obama to write a grown-up book, by herself. Although her husband Barack has not yet secured the Democratic Party presidential nomination, Ms. Obama has been approached by “over a dozen” publishers so far, according to Katie McCormick Lelyveld, a communications director for Ms. Obama.

Most of the calls have been going through Robert Barnett, the D.C. lawyer who represented Ms.  read more »

Scarlett Johansson was born and raised in New York City, but you probably wouldn’t know it from watching this video, in which she stumps for Senator Barack Obama. In the clip, filmed at Carleton College, a small liberal arts institution in Northfield, Minnesota, Ms. Johansson speaks to a group of students in an almost pitch-perfect Standard Midwestern accent. Amid the “yuh knowas” and “makun’ likes,” she recounts the first time she met Mr. Obama, someone she calls “an incredible thinker and mind.” The 23-year-old actress was apparently so “starstruck” by the encounter that a slightly unusual greeting tumbled out of Ms. Johansson’s mouth: “I love your wife!” The presidential hopeful returned the compliment, she tells the crowd, by “paddun me on tha hayd.”

LOS ANGELES—This could be big.

Maria Shriver, the first lady of California (wife of Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger) just endorsed Barack Obama on a stage here at an event at UCLA with Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama and her cousin Caroline Kennedy.

Shriver, the daughter of Eunice Kennedy, John F. Kennedy's sister, said that above her computer in her office she keeps a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt that said “Do one thing every day that scares you."  read more »

A release just came in announcing that Alma Rangel is endorsing Barack Obama.

Her husband, Representative Charlie Rangel, is chair of the House Ways and Means Committee and a major Hillary Clinton supporter.

Earlier this week it was reported Alma Rangel had attended a fund-raiser hosted by Michelle Obama.

Here's the release:  read more »

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Barack Obama raised the specter of his defeat in New Hampshire during his final pre-election speech to supporters here last night.

Obama finds himself, as he did in the Granite State, with a significant lead in the polls heading into Election Day. But a repeat of his traumatic loss in New Hampshire would deal his candidacy a potentially fatal blow.

Speaking to a capacity crowd at the Koger Center for the Arts shortly after 11 p.m. last night, Obama recalled that "everybody was so excited" after his win in the Iowa caucuses.

"I think people started thinking, 'This is not hard.' But you know that the status quo doesn't give up that easily…The status quo resists," he said.  read more »

PHILADELPHIA—During a short press conference at an event at Philadelphia’s City Hall where Hillary Clinton received the endorsement of Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell, a reporter asked if the governor approved of the aggressive campaigning Bill Clinton has been doing in the last few weeks against Barack Obama.

“Let me say this,” Rendell began. “You know that I have in my political career eschewed negative campaigning. But this is a rough and tumble, as Senator Clinton said, this is a tough election and the stakes are high. And everybody talks about not only what they want to do but talks about the weaknesses of what they think the other candidates” are.  read more »

Michelle Obama—or 'The Closer' as she is known these days to her husband and his campaign team—sought to live up to her nickname with the people of Plymouth this evening.

Speaking at a well-attended meeting in the Obama campaign's local office—organizers estimated attendance in this small town at around 200—she tried to defuse the idea that her husband lacked adequate toughness for the rigors of campaigning or governing.

Baldly asserting that "Barack is not naïve," Obama drew attention to her husband's stint as a minority member of the Illinois State Senate.

Referring repeatedly to "tough Illinois politics," she told the crowd that when people suggested the senator may be too soft, "I just think, 'C'mon people, where do you think we have been?'"  read more »

Giuliani puts out another campaign ad (right after everyone else.) [Jonathan Martin]

Robert Novak sort of defends the column that started the war between Obama and Clinton this weekend. [Ben Smith]
 read more »