Michelle Obama: "grab somebody by the shoulders and make them understand"

Our gentle first lady, taking it a step or two beyond her husband's "Argue with [your neighbors], get in their face" demands last time around:

The president is facing a very tough re-election campaign, first lady Michelle Obama told audiences at three Florida fundraisers on Thursday.

“This is going to require each of you to grab somebody by the shoulders and make them understand what’s at stake; how their self-interest is directly tied … It’s up to each of you to work like you’ve never worked before,” Mrs. Obama told an afternoon crowd of 200 people at the waterfront Tampa home of property developer Joel Cantor.

She used the same mix of threats and promises at a lunchtime fundraiser in Jacksonville. “This is not a joke. The choices are clear. We need you fired up and ready to go, working hard every minute of the day,” she said at the end of her stump speech. “We don’t have time to joke around. You got to shake people up. You got to get them ready to roll. We can do this.”

The first lady’s alarmist tone is certainly justified by the polls, which show her husband trailing in swing states, low in national surveys, disadvantaged by the national mood and nearly out of time to spur an election-saving economic recovery.

Just to make sure I understand her message: Does our "self-interest" include the well-being of the next generation or two? Or is it all about getting maximum goodies from the government today and letting the chips fall on our grandchildren?

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