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Barack Obama warns TN GOP "lay off my wife"

Submitted by Christian Grantham on May 19, 2008 - 10:17am.

Barack Obama appeared on Good Morning America this morning with his wife and had a message for the TN GOP after a recent video was posted online by TN GOP Spokesman Bill Hobbs questioning Michelle Obama's pride in America.

ROBIN ROBERTS: what have you learned about yourself since that night in Iowa?

MICHELLE OBAMA: I-- I've just been proud of how we've handled this as a-- as family.

BARACK OBAMA: She's-- she's-- she's done really good. (LAUGHTER) She-- she's put up with me much more than I expected.

ROBIN ROBERTS: You know what's going on in Tennessee with the GOP there. And their web campaign about taking remarks that you made earlier about being first time in your adult life being proud of the U.S.

VIDEO (Michelle Obama): "For the first time in my adult life time I'm really proud of my country."
(Bob S. Realtor): "Boy, I've been proud to be an American since I was a kid."
(Juan B. police officer): "I'm proud of this country each and every day."

ROBIN ROBERTS: should you get through this process, and you have the general election ahead of you that this is what you can expect more and more of.

MICHELLE OBAMA: Yeah, yeah.

ROBIN ROBERTS: Are you prepared for that?

BARACK OBAMA: You know what? Let, let me just interject on this. You know the GOP, should I be the nominee. I think can say whatever they wanna say about me, my track record. If they think that they're gonna try to make Michelle an issue in this campaign they should be careful. Because that I find unacceptable. The, the, the notion that you start attacking my wife or my family, you know, Michelle is the most honest, the best person I know. She is one of the most caring people I know. She loves this country. And for them to try to distort or to play snippets of her remarks in ways that are unflattering to her I think is, is, just low class. And I think they, most of the American people would think that as well. I would never think of going after somebody's spouse in a campaign. And for especially for people who purport to be, promoters of family values to start attacking my wife, in a political campaign, I think is, is detestable. Whoever's in charge of the Tennessee GOP, needs to think long and hard about the kind of campaign that they wanna run. And I think that's true for everybody, Democrat or Republican.

MICHELLE OBAMA: we're trusting that the american voters are ready to talk about the issues and not talking about the things that have nothing to do with making people's lives better.

BARACK OBAMA: But I also think these folks should lay off my wife. (LAUGHTER) Just in case they're watching.

Reaction from local blogs:

UPDATE 10:58pm: If you would like to embed this video on your blog, copy and paste the following code:

UPDATE 4:45pm: - The offices of both Senators Bob Corker (R-TN) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) gave us these statements today in response to this story. Sen. Corker's office has asked the TN GOP "to remove their You Tube ad from their Web site."

Sen. Corker's Chief of Staff Todd Womack
"After the Republican National Committee damaged our campaign with their infamous 'Call Me' ad - which we immediately denounced - we have strongly encouraged the national party and state parties to absolutely refrain from getting involved in negative personal campaigning, and we have asked the state party to remove their You Tube ad from their Web site. Republicans will be in much better shape if we spend our time focused on issues like reducing federal spending, lowering the cost of health care and creating a coherent energy policy."

Sen. Lamar Alexander Spokesman Lee Pitts
"There are probably better ways to communicate our pride in America, and we need to focus on those."

Waaaaaa.....

Submitted by mattmikulla on May 19, 2008 - 11:40am.

You bring your complainy wife on the campaign trail and she is somehow off limits from criticism?

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