Tonight, when Steven Colbert interviewed Michelle Obama on his show, he compared her to Jackie Kennedy. This was a historical moment that serves as the tipping point, reframing the race in Pennsylvania as the comparison was apt. (Read this article I wrote about the Jackie Kennedy exhibit at Chicago's Field Museum in 2005 to truly understand how her appearances have effectively changed the crown to Michelle Obama: http://badgerherald.com/artsetc/2005/01/ 17/heralding_the_return.php)

Brian Mier did research at Loyola University in Chicago that demonstrated it was Jackie who won the election for her husband through her wooing of the immigrant vote, not old Mayor Daley.Mier has friends working on Obama's campaign and it is my belief that his research has been used in the media and speaking placement of Senator Obama's wife in the moments leading up to the Pennsylvania primary.

In the wake of the famous bitter comment in Pennsylvania, Michelle Obama has emerged doing damage control and in my mind, has turned the comments about bitter working class white people to her husband's advantage by channeling her story through those comments. The two key events that did this was her appearance on the Colbert Report and her self-reflexive comment about her being evidence of 'what an investment in public education' could yield.

Polls are still showing Hillary Clinton ahead of Barack Obama by six points but as a Hillary supporter, I think these appearances by Ms. Obama have effectively turned the tide that will hand the state to Senator Obama when we wake up on April 23rd.

I like to be known for predicting trends so I'm calling it here and I'm calling it on Ms. Obama's Jackie Kennedy effect. (Whoever is dressing her for these appearances knows what he or she is doing. Michelle Obama's legs on Colbert won her husband at least 20 votes.)

Hillary is not her husband but she has inherited the reevaluation of his presidency and him as a person in the national reflection on what the Regan era and neo-liberalism has wrought, (even though, in many ways, Obama is our Tony Blair if one wants to talk neo-liberal legacy.) It is unfortunate because she is the better of the two Clinton's and like so many couples with 'stupid' men in them, Bill ruined it for her. This is how history will tell the story.

I hope, as a Hillary supporter, she rehabilitates herself away from the horrible, wrongful image the right-wing media has made of her and runs again if she is not the VP pick.

But otherwise, as someone who has been paid to be a trend watcher, Michelle Obama knocked it out of the ball park today and sealed the deal for her husband. When it comes down to it, as Jackie Kennedy was, the First Lady is the real Vice-president and many Americans are savvy enough to vote on that notion.

Also, kudos to Steven Colbert tonight for making his moment that will put him in the history books as the deal maker.

I'm still voting for Hillary in PA but watch the clip of tonights show and everyone out there will see why after this appearance, it's all over in Pennsylvania and Obama will win the state.

Again, to frame the objectivity of this post, I'm a Hillary supporter. However, she'd have to make Jesus himself come down and miraculously change the facist Pennsylvania state liquor sales laws to beat what Michelle Obama is doing for her husband on the trail.

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