Michelle Obama: ‘Don’t we deserve leaders who get it?’

Michelle Obama speaks in Saginaw Township, Mich. (photo: LoRayne Apo-Joynt)

It appeared to be a typical campaign event for the Obamas: A long line of attendees outside the school waited for more than a half hour; local media outlets were setting up, and many fresh-faced volunteers and organizers cheerily went about their work.

But there was a big difference: Saginaw Township is a Republican stronghold, with approximately 75 percent of voters identifying themselves as conservatives. Michelle Obama’s appearance here drew a capacity crowd of nearly 3,000.

After a welcoming speech by neighboring Saginaw City Mayor Joyce Seals and an invocation by the Rev. Hurley Coleman, the crowd warmed up to the vocals of the Sweet Adelines as they sang the national anthem. The audience was led in the Pledge of Allegiance by a local veteran, and thanked heartily by one of the Obama campaign organizers for their support of the campaign as it worked on outreach and voter registration.

The room was getting warm, the crowd restive as a local autoworker spoke briefly about her life, work and community — but then came Michelle Obama. The crowd lit up and cheered, eagerly greeting her to Saginaw.

The neighborhood may have been Republican, but you couldn’t tell from the reception she received.

The potential “mom-in-chief,” as she referred to herself, talked about her working-class background, pointing out that her story was much like that of the rest of America: Her father worked hard, laboring though afflicted with multiple sclerosis, happy to earn enough to support a family of four in spite of his disability and happier yet to help his children go to good neighborhood schools and better colleges. Michelle also acknowledged during the course of her speech that economic conditions no longer guarantee that workers can be assured of a reasonable living — they may not earn enough to support a family, let alone pay for the college education that will get them a decent job.

The presidential candidate’s wife asked, “Don’t we deserve something better … don’t we deserve leaders who get it?” She reminded the audience that her husband Barack “gets it, that he’s lived it,” after acknowledging that rising costs and plant closures afflict all Americans, and that Obama has experienced similar challenges in his own life and in the communities in which he worked as an organizer.

The speech made contact across the broad spectrum of attendees at this event, from white-collar professionals to autoworkers to high school students, by focusing on the need for improved job opportunities, better health care and improved educational opportunities.

Michelle Obama speaks to capacity crowd (photo: LoRayne Apo-Joynt)

Obama also asked for help with registering voters, reminding the crowd that her spouse said this campaign was not about him but about them. She called them to action, to register new voters in the remaining few days before Monday’s deadline for new voter registrations. With the online registration resource VoteForChange.com, she said that students in the audience could even get their grandmothers to register without changing out of their bathrobes.

Although a few minutes too long for the size of the venue — a large number of attendees stood on the gym floor for nearly two hours after a lengthy wait in line — the speech was effective and the crowd clearly enjoyed Obama’s visit. The crowd’s energy level remained high for the duration of the wait and the speeches, in contrast to the crowd that greeted her husband only a few months ago at Kettering University in nearby Flint, Mich. The Kettering crowd appeared slower to warm to the candidate; perhaps as a measure of the change in public opinion toward the Obamas, the crowd at today’s event was stoked and ready before Michelle Obama entered the venue.

Local dignitaries mingling with the crowd today included the Saginaw Township supervisor Tim Braun, as well as 95th District state Rep. Andy Coulouris and Saginaw County Board of Commissioners chair Cheryl Hadsall. 94th District state representative candidate Bob Blaine also took the opportunity to meet and greet voters, as did 4th Congressional District candidate Andrew Concannon.

The event ran like clockwork, wrapping up with Michelle making a turn about the dais to shake hands with audience members and exiting to head for the next event scheduled for 4:30 p.m. in Clinton Township, located a little more than an hour south of Saginaw Township. Clinton Township is very similar to Saginaw Township in its political makeup; it was once more into the lion’s den Thursday afternoon for Mrs. Obama.