海角大神

Michelle Obama has joined the social media photo-sharing website Pinterest. On Wednesday morning she on the service, grouped in three categories: 鈥淎round the White House,鈥� 鈥淕reat Memories,鈥� and 鈥淔ather鈥檚 Day.鈥� Or rather, she pinned eight of the images, and the Obama reelection campaign put up the rest. The Obama 2012 staff is going to run the site with Mrs. Obama鈥檚 input. Her personal pins will be signed with her initials, 鈥渕o.鈥�

Some of the pictures are standard publicity fare. There is Mrs. Obama winning a tug-of-war with talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel, while a portrait of George Washington looks on. There's Mrs. Obama digging up what appear to be peppers from the White House garden. There鈥檚 the Obama family鈥檚 official 2011 portrait.

But there is also some stuff that might come under the heading of pretty personal blasts-from-the-past. There鈥檚 a photo from 1992 of the future first lady hugging the future president, her eyes on the camera, his staring off... somewhere. So young, they look. In the Father鈥檚 Day category there鈥檚 a rare shot of the couple kissing, and a miniature-golf action shot.

What鈥檚 Mrs. Obama doing, joining Pinterest now? Keeping up with Ann Romney, for one thing. Mrs. Romney has been on the site for a while, and has that鈥檚 heavy on recipes (Meat loaf cake? What鈥檚 that?), flag shots, and family photos.

The current first lady is also just augmenting her overall social media push. She鈥檚 got more than 1 million followers (Her latest tweet: a twitpic of a sacked-out Bo) and 7 million 鈥渓ikes鈥� on Facebook.

But what鈥檚 really behind all this is the effort by Obama鈥檚 reelection team to leverage the first lady鈥檚 popularity as much as possible as early as possible in the 2012 race. It鈥檚 a multipronged strategy: social media, her new book about the White House gardening and healthy eating, and traditional media appearances pegged to the book鈥檚 publication.

Oh, you thought it was just a coincidence that 鈥�American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America鈥� came out about the time the GOP picked its nominee and the general election began? Toughen up 鈥� the campaign鈥檚 just getting started.

Remember, Mrs. Obama鈥檚 poll numbers are much better than her husband鈥檚. An April Marist survey found that 65 percent of registered voters had a positive view of the first lady, for instance. Only 23 percent had an unfavorable opinion.

鈥淭he first lady may be the president鈥檚 best asset,鈥� said Lee Miringoff, director of The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, when the poll came out. 鈥淲ith numbers like these, expect her to have a high profile on the campaign trail.鈥�

Voil脿, Pinterest. The Father鈥檚 Day category on her new pinboard invites viewers to sign a Father鈥檚 Day card for the president. Click through, and it further invites you to contribute to the campaign.

With both sides eschewing public financing for the fall campaign, they are in a dollars race to amass enough cash to counter the other guy鈥檚 message. Expect more of the same, from both sides, in months to come.