HALPERIN’S TAKE: Michelle Obama and the General Election

So far, Obama campaign officials have smoothly explained away Michelle Obama’s statement Monday when she told a Wisconsin audience, “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country.” The campaign has clarified her comment thusly: Of course she is proud of America and loves her country, but she recognizes its political system has not always been perfect. Like her husband, Michelle Obama has garnered extraordinarily positive press coverage, and, despite some cautiously critical commentary during the last 12 hours, the dominant Old Media has not yet pounced on her remark.

But if you sample talk radio and the conservative blogs, you will get a neat preview of what will happen if Barack Obama is the Democrats’ presidential nominee and his wife makes similar statements as a potential first lady. The opposition will launch a full-scale assault against her judgment and (at least indirectly) her character and patriotism, and all previous remarks, including this one, will be recycled, replayed, and condemned. If she makes such a comment in October 2008, it could be disastrous for her husband’s campaign.

The clearest evidence: Cindy McCain, who almost never involves herself in the politics of the day and shies from controversy, struck back with this response: “I am proud of my country. I don’t know about you. If you heard those words earlier, I am very proud of my country.”

The Clinton campaign has often argued that Barack Obama is not prepared to face a general election onslaught from the rough Republican attack machine, but that contention has not yet been extended to Michelle Obama. This may change, given the pressures surrounding the current cluster of primaries. And those who think that the remarks of candidate spouses don’t count should hearken back to 2004. Teresa Heinz Kerry’s words were mocked, parsed, and censured by the Bush campaign and the Republican opposition, to great effect. In one incident, Mrs. Kerry was forced to apologize for suggesting Laura Bush had never held “a real job,” and her occasionally brash statements and behavior contributed to the negative image of Senator Kerry as patrician and remote.

Plus: Obama’s chief strategist David Axelrod talks about M. Obama’s comments to The Page here.