WS Chronicle

Photo by Todd Luck

BY TODD LUCK 

THE CHRONICLE

First Lady Michelle Obama and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton encouraged people to take advantage of early voting in their first-ever joint campaign appearance at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Thursday, Oct. 27.

An enthusiastic crowd of 10,500 attendees cheered on both women as they spoke on the importance of voting. It was the first day all 17 of Forsyth County’s early voting sites opened.

“Make no mistake about it, casting our vote is the ultimate way we go high, when they go low,” said Obama.

The first lady’s line of “when they go low, we go high” from this year’s Democratic National Convention has become a repeated mantra of Democratic candidates.

Obama had high praise for Clinton, whom she said was a friend to her and her family. She praised Clinton’s long career in politics.

“It takes a level of generosity of spirit to do what Hillary has in her career and her life,” said Obama.

She said Clinton has more “experience and exposure to the presidency than any candidate in our lifetime.” She listed Clinton’s experience as a first lady, senator and secretary of state, which the crowd responded to with long, uproarious applause. Obama responded “That’s right, Hillary don’t play.”

Clinton also had high praise for the current first lady, saying she knew from experience how difficult that job could be while trying to raise a family.

“Let’s be real, as our first African-American first lady, she faced pressures I never did and she’s handled them with pure grace,” said Clinton.

Clinton emphasized the importance of the election on numerous issues, including immigration, climate change and protecting marriage equality. She chided her Republican opponent, businessman Donald Trump, for saying that he could teach Defense Secretary Ash Carter “a couple things” about military strategy.

“Actually Donald, you’re the one who has a lot to learn about the military and everything else that makes America great,” she said.

She said the campaign has been a “hard” and “ugly,” one that even children are noticing. She said that the president impacts children as the “most powerful role model in the world.” She said she’s heard from kids who are scared their parents or themselves will be deported by Trump because they’re immigrants.

“We got to make sure all of our kids know that America has a place for you, the American Dream is big enough for you,” said Clinton.

The day after the rally, the FBI announced it was looking into emails related to its previous investigation of Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state and if there was classified information in those emails. The emails are not from Clinton’s server.