Hot on the heels of former President Bill Clinton's visit to Athens, Michelle Obama will speak on behalf of her husband's political campaign tomorrow afternoon at Ohio University.
The doors at Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium will open at 3:15 p.m., according to campaign officials. Sen. Barack Obama's wife is expected to take the stage at 4 p.m., where she will address the crowd in support of her husband.
The event is free and open to the public, said Chris Farrell, regional director for the Southeastern Ohio for Obama. The auditorium holds 2,000 people, but Farrell said the number of available seats is still unclear.
Having Michelle Obama speak for her husband is not as advantageous to his campaign as Bill Clinton speaking for Hillary Clinton is, said professor Benjamin Bates, who studies political campaigns and presidential debates.
When Clinton talks
he talks about his relationship with Hillary Clinton and about his policy expertise Bates said. When Michelle Obama talks she can only talk about Barack's character. She doesn't have the insider knowledge of expertise.
A spouse rallying on behalf of a candidate does not necessarily affect the final outcome of an election, but it should not be overlooked in a campaign.
Having your spouse speak for you is now virtually a campaign necessity
because if the person who's known you for 30 years isn't going to speak for you
you have a problem
Bates said.
Ohio, which has been a battleground state for many years, is also an important part of the presidential election because of the voter diversity found in the statistics, he said.
Every political demographic you can imagine is here in Ohio
he said. What works in Ohio will probably work in the rest of the nation.
Athens' liberal composition of college students and faculty members stands out among the more conservative cities in Athens County and the surrounding counties, Bates said.
Ohio University is very important to a Democrat's campaign
he said. The city of Athens is one blue spot in a sea of red.
Students are also involved in the campaign for Sen. Obama.
Tommy Greene, media coordinator for OU Students for Barack Obama, said that grassroots efforts among the students began over a year ago. Since then, the efforts have grown to encompass everything from weekly meetings and voter registration to sign rallies and debate watches ' anything to get the students enthused about the presidential bid of the Democratic senator from Illinois.
We're doing everything we can down here to reach out to the population and get the vote
Greene said about Obama's local campaigning efforts.
Greene said he believes OU is very open-minded about the upcoming presidential election.
We don't have everybody's support
but we are doing everything we can to make sure people who don't know much about Barack Obama find out what they can
he said.
Media representatives for Obama's Columbus-based campaign office could not confirm whether the Illinois senator has any intentions to visit the Athens area himself.
