WASHINGTON - Michelle Obama is flying high once again in public opinion polls, her much-maligned jaunt to Spain this summer apparently a distant memory as she makes high-profile appearances urging voters not to give up on her husband's promise of hope and change.
Obama isn't the first president's wife to be put to work in advance of the all-important congressional mid-term elections. Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton and other modern-day first ladies did their part as well.
But Myra Gutin, a historian at Rider University in New Jersey, said Obama possesses something unique: high-voltage celebrity appeal that surpasses her husband's by leaps and bounds, prompting her approval ratings to soar to as high as almost 70 per cent in recent polls while his have sunk as low as the mid-40s.
"She's really left the hubbub about Spain well behind her; people have forgotten all about it," Gutin said in an interview Tuesday, referring to the barrage of criticism Obama faced when she took a lavish vacation to Spain with one of her daughters in August instead of staying in the recession-plagued United States.
"Her reception on the campaign trail has been very warm, very affectionate, and that's because, quite simply, she's a rock star. And she's a rock star because she seems so grounded and so real to so many people."
Democrats have released a personal video appeal from Obama beseeching supporters not to wait until election day to cast their ballots, but to vote now.
"Our president needs your help, we need your votes, so get out there, get it done early," she said in the video, which was available online. "Don't wait until election day; make it happen. We can do this and we need your help."
Obama has also been on the West Coast this week, appearing at various events that have resulted in breathless coverage not just on her remarks but also on her hair and style choices.
At an event in California on Tuesday, Obama once again showed the common touch, telling a women's conference that she was iffy about Barack Obama's decision to make a bid for the White House.
"It had taken a little convincing to persuade me that this whole running-for-president thing was a good idea," she said. "And by 'a little' convincing, I actually mean it was a lot. We had two young daughters at home."
Once the decision was made, Obama added, she was nervous about campaigning.
"I didn't like the idea of leaving my girls for days on end. I didn't have a whole lot of experience on the stump. And to tell you the truth, I was scared. I was worried that I'd say the wrong thing. I was nervous that someone might ask a question that I didn't know that answer to," she said.
"I have a tendency to do that thing that a lot of women do where you get 99 things right, but spend all your time beating yourself up about the one thing you messed up."
Her appearance Tuesday was less political than an event in San Francisco on Monday night, when Obama urged Americans not to give up on her husband.
"I know that for a lot of folks, change hasn't come fast enough," she told a fundraising event that raked in US$1.6 million for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
"Believe me it hasn't come fast enough for Barack ... or any of us. But the truth is, it's going to take us a lot longer to dig out of the hole than any of us would like.
"He told us that change is hard. He told us that change is slow. We have to push past the cynicism because there is too much at stake right now."
There's little evidence a presidential spouse can turn the tides of a mid-term election campaign. In 2006, Laura Bush -- also far more popular than her husband with approval ratings as high as 80 per cent -- campaigned for about a dozen Republican candidates, and only a couple of them won.
Gutin says Obama likely won't have much of an impact either on Tuesday's vote, but credited her with performing a valuable service rallying the demoralized Democratic troops as they face potential annihilation.
"She's very careful and very cautious, and the way in which she frames things on the campaign trail is very smart; she's not knocking the other candidates," Gutin said.
A bigger question mark, Gutin adds, is how Obama will campaign in two years, when her husband is running for re-election.
"We're looking at her now, in 2010, and she's being very circumspect and civilized, but it makes you wonder what she'll do in 2012," she said.
"Will she continue to be polite and non-partisan and stay above the fray, or will she get down and dirty and fight for her husband's presidency?"
