"Mrs. Obama and the Women"

The Trail, WaPo's political blog:

CHICAGO -- Women will choose the next president, Michelle Obama said at a rally here Wednesday as she described one of her husband's most important challenges in his race against Sen. John McCain: "We need to educate more women and bring them into this campaign."

"They need to know about this candidate and understand what the issues are that are at stake. And then we have to get them out to vote," she told about 800 supporters at a Women for Obama lunch overseen by Chez Panisse chef Alice Waters.

"We're going to decide the outcome of this race. Whether the bad guys or the good guys win, it's going to be up to us."

Fifty-four percent of voters in 2004 were women, said Obama, who predicted the figure will be higher this year.

Obama has emerged as the most prominent voice on women's issues in Sen. Barack Obama's campaign. She told stories about women she had met while campaigning and described a series of policies that she said would help working women and families.

"This is personal," said Obama, who talks often of juggling family and career. "These are the issues that I carry in my heart every single day."

The immediate challenge is also political. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton ran strongly among women during the Democratic primary season, taking the women's vote in more than half the primaries.

"In the 35 states that held primaries over the course of this year, Barack won the women's votes in 15 of those states," Obama said. "So, there's something going on. We're doing something right, but we have more work to do."

Waters traveled from her chic Berkeley restaurant to oversee the preparations of grilled organic chicken and baked stuffed Hargrande apricots with vanilla ice cream. Before introducing Obama, she made a pitch for healthier eating, more leisurely mealtimes and the use of more local produce.

Waters said the next president should set an example by planting a vegetable garden on the White House lawn.

Barack Obama