Michelle Obama Cooks Up Quite a Political Dish on the Food Network

Posted by Christy Hardin Smith, Firedoglake at 4:31 PM on September 22, 2008.

Michelle Obama scored a huge coup, with an appearance on Paula's Party on Food Network, taking her "home cooking mama" appeal straight to the most sought-after demographic this year: women.  Get this from People Magazine:

"She was everything I thought she would be: Smart, great sense of humor and loves to talk about family," Deen told PEOPLE of meeting Mrs. Obama.

The pair prepared fried shrimp for Deen's show and Deen said, "I can tell she spends time in the kitchen – she was very relaxed when we cooked. And that lady is a good eater."

Not that it shows. "Did I tell you she is in the best shape ever? Everyone was staring at her amazing arms!" said Deen.

Food Network doesn't allow political ads, so this was huge in terms of reach-out.  Both campaigns have been running ads designed to hit female viewers -- during talk shows, soap operas, you name it.  Demographic strategery.

This year, the NYTimes writes about the Oprah-ization of campaign marketing to women. And Karen Tumulty at Time has hit on a "maxed-out moms" phrasing for the volatile bloc candidates are courting. 

We've said repeatedly that women's voices are key as we've urged more political involvement for women for the last several years.  But this year's outreach to women has been broader in its appeal.

There's policy wonkery, sure, but also a decided "every woman" bent from both campaigns: from People to USWeekly, from Vogue to Ladies Home Journal, from Ellen to The View.  Both are reaching out to not-so-politically-motivated women.

If it encourages women to get active, make things better, ask tough questions, then I'm all for it.  But I'm not sure it does.  What do you think?