Former First Lady Michelle Obama has long been touted as a possible Democrat Presidential candidate with many believing she should have been selected to run against Donald Trump this November.

Speaking as a surrogate for Kamala Harris in Michigan she displayed why she is widely fancied.

Extremely articulate and intelligent, she hits all her spots with both ease and grace.

The Kamala Harris team has made abortion rights a major theme of the campaign, marrying it to women’s issues. How often have we heard in recent months that a woman should have the right to make a decision about a termination and her body?

This is an issue that men do not understand and cannot relate to. The abortion issue will bring American women to the ballot box and bring into focus what Roe Vs Wade was intended to accomplish. 

Michelle Obama was able last weekend to conjoin the contentious issue to men’s interest and eloquently and convincingly made the case for why men should care about abortion rights.

It was an epic display and one of the best political speeches in recent history. Her husband Barack Obama is a political athlete and so is she. She exudes humanity, empathy and charisma. There is no doubt she has the chops.

Michelle Obama is compelling and when she walked off the stage, many would have thought, there goes what could have been a great president of the United States.

Kamala Harris’ abortion position alienated men. There was nothing in it for them.

But men love the women in their lives and Michelle Obama was astute enough to make the correlation. She gave men something to ponder and it touched many.

With this presidential election, Michelle Obama made a gender issue, a national issue. She did the Kamala Harris team a huge favour and they may very well be indebted to her.

In Michigan, she made the case that women’s reproductive rights should be important to men.

She said: “I don’t expect any man to fully grasp how vulnerable this makes us feel, to understand the complexities of our reproductive health experiences. In all honesty, most of us as women don’t understand the breadth and depth of our reproductive lives. That’s because our experiences are often neglected by science.”

Michelle Obama’s speech in Michigan was heartfelt. It seemed unscripted, that she had no need for a teleprompter. If there was one, it served very little purpose for her. Michelle Obama’s words rang out loud and true. She was spellbinding.

Now hear this: “So, to the men who love us, let me just try to paint a picture of what it would feel like if America, the wealthiest nation on earth keeps revoking basic care from its women and how it will affect every single woman in your life—your girlfriend could be the one in legal jeopardy if she needs a pill from outer state or overseas or if she needs to travel across state lines because the local clinic closed up.

“Your wife or mother could be the ones at high risk of dying from undiagnosed cervical cancer because they have no access to regular gynaecological care. Your daughter could be the one too terrified to call the doctor if she is bleeding during an unexpected pregnancy. Your niece could be the one miscarrying in her bathtub after the hospital turned her away. This will not just affect women, it will affect you and your sons. The devastating consequences of teen pregnancy will not just be borne by young girls but by the young men who are the fathers. They too will have their dreams of going to college, their entire future upended by an unwanted pregnancy.

“If you and your partner are expecting a child, you will be right by her side at the check-ups, terrified if her blood pressure is too high or if there is an issue with the placenta or if the ultrasound shows the embryo was implanted in the wrong place and the doctors aren’t sure they can intervene to keep the woman you love safe.

“If your wife is shivering and bleeding on the operation-room table during a routine delivery gone bad, her pressure dropping as she loses more and more blood or the unforeseen infection spreads and her doctors aren’t sure if they can act, you will be the one praying it’s not too late. You will be the one pleading for someone, anybody to do something. And then there is the tragic but very real possibility that in the worst-case scenario, you might be the one, just be the one, holding flowers at the funeral. You might be the one left to raise your children alone. These are some of the ways women die during childbirth. I don’t want to be a downer, ya’ll but, in many cases, there is no warning and things go bad quickly and when it happens, every second of hesitation or delay can lead to devastating outcomes.

“So I am asking from the core of my being to take our lives seriously. Please, do not put our lives in the hands of politicians, mostly men who have no clue or do not care about what we as women are going through, who do not fully grasp the broad-reaching health implications their misguided policies will have on our health outcomes. The only people who have standing to make these decisions are women with the advice of their doctors. We are the ones with the knowledge and experience to know what we need. So please, please do not hand our fates over to the likes of Trump who knows nothing about us, who has shown deep contempt for us, because a vote for him is a vote against us. Against our health, against our worth.

“To think that the men that we love can be either unaware or indifferent to our plight is simply breathtaking. It is a sad statement about our value as women in this world. It is both a setback in our quest for equity and a huge blow to our country’s strength as a world leader on women’s issues of health and gender equality. So fellas, before you cast your vote, ask yourselves, what side of history do you want to be on.”

This speech was marvellous to behold and if Kamala Harris should prove unsuccessful tomorrow, many will be calling for Michelle Obama to run in 2028. 

This may be the quote to remember from this entire campaign: “If we don’t get this election right, your wife, your daughter, your mother, we as women will become collateral damage to your rage. So are you as men prepared to look into the eyes of the women and children you love and tell them you supported this assault on our safety? To the women listening, we have every right to demand that the men in our lives do better by us. We have to use our voices to make these choices clear to the men that we love. Our lives are worth more than their anger and disappointment. We are more than just baby-making vessels.”

Michelle Obama has a commanding presence. It is said that she doesn’t like politics but she has a gift for it. Her decency and ability to touch the human spirit make her a natural.

In a world of synthetic personalities unable to mine qualities for the betterment of others, Michelle Obama stands tall, authentic, someone you can count on, someone you can believe in. She soars high where others have nowhere else to go but low.

Michelle Obama continued: “If you are a woman who lives in a household with men who don’t listen to you or value your opinion, just remember, your vote is a private matter, regardless of the political views of your partner, you get to choose, you get to use your judgement and cast your vote for yourself and the women in your life. Let us use our voices in these final days to make it plain to the men in our lives that we need to stand not with Trump but with us. We need them to vote or the only candidate in this race who will protect our lives. We need them to vote for Kamala Harris.”