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December 2, 2008 7:01:32 AM CST

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Michelle Touts Obamas as 'Just Folks'

Posted Apr 20, 08 6:43 AM CDT in Politics 

(Newser) – Michelle Obama is hammering home a message that she and her husband are just “regular folks" of humble backgrounds. She has become a key weapon as the candidate continues to be buffeted by criticisms that he's "elitist" in the wake of his characterization of rural America as Bible-thumping, gun-toting and "bitter." Michelle Obama is focusing on her upbringing on Chicago’s South Side and Barack’s as the son of a poor single mom. 

"We are not so far away from life,” she tells audiences. The Obamas earned $4 million last year, and there’s a dearth of documentation to prove Michelle’s claims of past struggles with debt, reports the Chicago Tribune. But to many in her audiences, that doesn’t seem to matter. “She's just plain folk, you know?” said one audience member.

Source Chicago Tribune

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Sen. Barack Obama and his wife Michelle join together on stage after speaking at Obama's Super Tuesday presidential primary election night party in this Feb. 5, 2008 file photo, in Chicago.   (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, file)
Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., listens to her husband speak about race during a news conference in Philadelphia, Tuesday, March 18, 2008.   (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill, speaks at Winston-Salem State University in Winston-Salem, N.C., Tuesday, April 8, 2008.   (AP Photo/Jim R. Bounds)
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Barack Obama • Election 2008 • Michelle Obama • elitism


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