Step aside, Mr. President. The First Lady is in the building.

Democrats are planning to deploy the popular Michelle Obama to speak to voters as mid-term elections move nearer.

Mrs. Obama, despite some made up criticism over her recent mother-daughter trip to Spain, has high approval ratings and none of the political baggage of her presidential husband. Her approval ratings, in a poll taken after she returned from Spain, dipped about 14 points since 2009, but most people agree they will improve as the over-hyped trip fades from memory.

Obama has focused on battling childhood obesity, healthy eating and military families. Even photos of her from her Spain trip showed a Mom showing her daughter to the world.

An upcoming publicity tour for her Let's Move initiative, focusing on exercise, will see her appearing on the covers of five Meredith National Media Group magazines that are aimed at women.

Recent First Ladies, including Hilary Clinton and Laura Bush, have also campaigned on behalf of their respective parties.

"She's at the very top of people's want list," one Democratic Senate strategist told the Chicago Tribune. "She's not the one carrying the water on the BP oil spill," the strategist added.

The Chicago Tribune reports:


Sending the First Lady in to the campaign scrum is an indication of just how worried the White House is about losing seats in the fall, when control of the House and possibly the Senate is up for grabs. Plenty of candidates want her to visit. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who is trying to fend off a challenge from Republican Carly Fiorina, has asked the First Lady to campaign in California and to headline a fund-raising event. Another request has come from Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate Joe Sestak, who makes no secret he would prefer a visit from the First Lady than from her baggage-laden husband.

So far Michelle Obama has largely eschewed a partisan role in favor of apolitical causes such as mentoring, fitness and military families. The rebranding has paid off. Her favorable rating has risen 20 percentage points since the 2008 campaign, when she veered in to trouble for asserting that for the first time as an adult, she was "proud of my country."

Obama is popular because women around the country can relate to her. She represents the rising demographic of highly educated women who are also balancing their roles as wives and Mothers of young children.

As women continue to outpace men on the educational front, there will be more and more Michelle Obama's out there: Women who place their personal aspirations on hold temporarily for the benefit of their families or children. And that's why Mrs. Obama will be given the room to talk about issues affecting everyday Americans.

"She'll appear with candidates and talk about issues that most Americans are concerned with: the economy and jobs and health care and issues affecting the nation's children. But she'll do it in a way that is so vanilla, she just misses the mark of actually endorsing a candidate," Michelle Bernard, president of the Independent Women's Forum, a center-right think tank, predicted to the Tribune.

It'll be interesting to see what Mrs. Obama does once she leaves the White House and the role of First Mom.

Check out the First Lady here: