Obama has lost his teleprompter Mojo.
Via The Hill
First lady Michelle Obama is more aggressively wading into policy fights while expanding her portfolio.
Six years into the Obama administration, the first lady has gone to bat on issues outside her bailiwick in the East Wing.
It’s a shift from the first few years of the Obama presidency, when the first lady generally kept a safe distance from politics and sought to avoid the characterization that she was meddling too heavily in the West Wing.
Most notably, earlier this month, she spoke out on the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian girls, first on Instagram and then in a weekly radio address, a messaging space typically reserved for her husband.
It was her first solo appearance on the address, and the photo of Obama on Instagram was quickly re-tweeted around the world, just as White House officials had hoped.
She also made a rare foray into Capitol Hill politics earlier this week when House Republicans threatened to rollback the school lunch programs she fought hard to implement. The first lady promptly held a conference call to rally supporters against the spending bill that would allow schools to opt out of tougher nutrition standards in school meal programs.
While senior administration officials say the first lady is not expected to head to the Hill and meet with lawmakers to discuss the nutrition standards, she will be taking up the battle in her own way.
“You’ll see a sustained level of engagement,” one senior administration official said, adding that the White House will find creative and unique ways to push their strategy. “She’ll continue to bring this message to where the parents and kids are.”
On Tuesday, for example, Obama will participate in a discussion the school leaders and experts on school nutrition. As part of the talk, Obama will “stress the importance of students, parents, school officials, community leaders, and health advocates” to help “protect and advance” the progress that has been made in schools across the country, according to the White House.
The senior administration official also said the first lady would be doubling-down to help Democrats in the mid-term elections. After all, while her husband’s poll numbers drop and some Democrats would prefer that he not appear at campaign events, she is still in demand.