Thursday, July 17, 2008

"Defending Michelle: Attacks 'infuriating'"

Ben Smith:
Glamour gets an Obama sitdown (!), and asks him about attacks on his wife:

GLAMOUR: Right now the approval ratings on Michelle are lower than those of Cindy McCain, and I'm curious about how as a husband that makes you feel. Does it mystify you? And what do you want to say to those Americans who don't know the woman that you know?

SENATOR OBAMA: It's infuriating, but it's not surprising, because let's face it: What happened was that the conservative press — Fox News and the National Review and columnists of every ilk — went fairly deliberately at her in a pretty systematic way ... and treated her as the candidate in a way that you just rarely see the Democrats try to do against Republicans. And I've said this before: I would never have my campaign engage in a concerted effort to make Cindy McCain an issue, and I would not expect the Democratic National Committee or people who were allied with me to do it. Because essentially, spouses are civilians. They didn't sign up for this. They're supporting their spouse. So it took a toll. If you start being subjected to rants by Sean Hannity and the like, day in, day out, that'll drive up your negatives.

Two other interesting points: He notes that Hillary was subject to the same sort of flack when she was the spouse, and he really does't like it: "I don't have a thick skin when it comes to criticism of my wife," he says.

Howie P.S.: Expect the opposition to come at her even harder.

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