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What explains Obama's newfound love of campaigning? There are clues in this 2014 New York Times piece about why she wasn't an active campaign presence in that election. Here's the key bit:

She has her reasons, Democrats say: Mrs. Obama hates to be away from her daughters. She loathes Washington’s toxic politics. She resents Republicans for their opposition to her husband’s agenda. But she also believes some Senate Democrats have been insufficiently supportive of her own efforts to end childhood obesity

Her daughters are now older — Malia is 18, Sasha is 15. She sees the end of her husband's term rapidly approaching. Maybe she has made some peace with Senate Democrats.

But, the real truth for why Obama has suddenly embraced her role as an uber-surrogate for Democrats can be found in her husband's words at a Democratic fundraiser earlier this week in La Jolla, Calif.: “Some of you may be aware of the fact that Michelle does not really love politics,” President Obama said at the event. “But the passion that she’s brought to campaigning this time speaks to the degree that this election is different, the choice is different.”

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The president is being polite. But, if you read between the lines even a little bit, here's what you are left with: Michelle Obama really, really doesn't like Donald Trump. And she thinks he is a clear and present danger not only to Democrats but also to women and to the American experiment itself.

In short: This one is personal to Michelle Obama. And you can tell.

Obama's speech in New Hampshire was remarkable for a lot of reasons. But the most important one was that it was obviously deeply heartfelt. She was emotional when she talked about Trump's comments about women — what they meant to her as a woman and what they meant to her two daughters. She acknowledged that she “couldn't stop thinking about” Trump's lewd hot-mic comments and said that the whole episode “has shaken me to my core in a way that I couldn’t have predicted.”

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In Phoenix, she echoed many of those same messages — calling Trump's vision for the United States one of “hopelessness and despair . . . riven by division and ruled by fear.” She also passionately made the case for Clinton — and the country's future — insisting: “I have traveled the world, and I am telling you we still live in the greatest country on Earth. We have every reason to be hopeful.”

We all tend to forget that politics is, at root, about people and their relationships (or lack thereof). There's no doubt that Obama didn't think Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) or Mitt Romney would be a better president than her husband. But, according to that same husband, she didn't feel personally and passionately about the dangers posed by the Republican alternative the way she does in this election.