WHEN the US marks the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Ground Zero in New York will not be the only focus of attention.
An intriguing ceremony at the Pennsylvania site where the fourth hijacked plane crashed will feature speeches by both Laura Bush and Michelle Obama.
The collaboration of the former and current first ladies not only reflects the unexpectedly warm relations that have developed between President Barack Obama and his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, it also heralds a changing role for Michelle Obama as her husband struggles to regain his popularity.
After months of debate over her low-key political profile – and whether she could help Democratic candidates in November’s mid-term elections – the first lady is poised for a potentially turbulent image makeover.
The hitherto non-political days of the “mom-in-chief” who quietly tends the White House vegetable garden are about to give way to a crowded calendar of lobbying, campaigning and discreet political activism.
In the coming weeks, Michelle will announce new initiatives in her widely acclaimed campaign to reduce childhood obesity, and will expand her work to improve living conditions and job opportunities for military families.
She will also make a rare foray into foreign policy when she joins the Prime Minister of Haiti, the president of Liberia and former US president Bill Clinton at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative charity.
And she has agreed to return to the campaign trail for the first time since the presidential election to support Democratic candidates in key seats where her husband has become a liability.
Despite recent criticism of her summer holiday in Spain as extravagant, she remains far more widely admired than her husband, and numerous Democrats have told the White House they believe she could provide the election spark that the President no longer ignites.
After early stumbles in 2008, Michelle emerged as a formidable campaigner who wowed large crowds as her husband’s surrogate. A former high-powered lawyer and well-paid hospital administrator, Michelle abandoned her career when she moved to the White House but continued to earn acclaim for the well-chosen bipartisan causes she adopted.
White House aides are acutely aware her image as the do-good mother of Sasha and Malia may be at risk if she is dragged into the crossfire that has characterised election campaigning this year.
Last week, Sarah Palin, the Tea Party idol and former governor of Alaska, cheerily dismissed her own media critics as “impotent, limp and gutless reporters”.
“I think (Michelle’s) happy to go out and support folks who have stood up for things that she thinks are important,” David Axelrod, Obama’s senior adviser, told The New York Times.
“But I don’t think she’s eager to jump into the fray in a very political way, and I don’t think she will.”
That the Obamas are prepared to risk Michelle at all reflects the Democrats’ dismal predicament as the elections approach.
Opinion polls last week continued to indicate that a Republican takeover of both congress and the Senate remains a possibility; and that 57 per cent of Americans believe Obama’s measures to help the country’s struggling economy have failed to work.
Nor has Obama’s recent run of impressive foreign policy breakthroughs rescued his ratings from the doldrums. When he went on TV last week to remind Americans he had delivered on his campaign promise to withdraw US troops from Iraq, only 29 million people tuned in – down from the 50 million he attracted in the early days of his presidency.
The long-awaited revival of the Middle East peace process drew mainly shrugs from his Republican critics and cries of: “What about the economy?”
Obama will focus on job creation when he visits Cleveland this week and economic issues are likely to dominate a presidential press conference on Friday, the first he has given since May, when he talked about the BP oil spill.
Yet many Democrats remain concerned that the presidency has already “jumped the shark” – irreversibly changed from positive to negative – and that never again will headline writers compare Obama to John F. Kennedy.
Last week, Time magazine – which declared Obama its Man of the Year in 2008 – labelled him “Mr Unpopular”.
Under attack from Left and Right, the victim of persistently malicious lies about his religion and his birthplace, Obama has failed to find a formula to restore his ravaged appeal.
His main consolation appears to be that Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton had lower approval ratings at this point in their presidencies, yet both went on to win re-election. If Obama is to pull off a similar feat, he may need all the help he can get from Michelle.
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