Michelle Obama takes to the hustings and all of us start to pay attention to the race again.  Why?  Because she’s not as practised, or as scripted, as Senator Obama.  Of course, Hillary’s spouse is a special case, but all too often, the spouses are more interesting than the candidates by the time the race has been going for a few months.

There are two main reasons for that.  First of all, of course, it gets old for the candidates pretty quickly.  They get no sleep, they’re rushed from place to place, and they have to say the same thing over and over again.  It’s a recipe for boredom.  For them and for us. 

Second, in their slightly less scripted, repetitive world, the spouses have a better chance of actually saying something that strikes us as authentic.  And authenticity is what we crave.  Senator McCain’s mother is a wonderful example of someone who makes news every time she’s interviewed, usually by saying something that tweaks the candidate’s image of polished professionalism.  She trashed the Republican Party for not supporting her son, and she was right.  It was a sentiment that everyone could understand, regardless of political leanings.  Loyalty was repaid with betrayal.  Bad on the party. 

If authenticity is the craving of the age, how could the candidates possibly achieve more authenticity while still staying on message in speech after speech? 

By accepting that authenticity is a little messier than the fully scripted, polished candidacy, and a little more interesting.  When Barack Obama answered that he was not very well organized to the question about a fault he had, the other candidates gave the usual replies that they were "too passionate" and "impatient for change" or some such similar drivel. 

Obama took a little flak for a news cycle or two, but he survived.  We learned something real about him.  And he lodged in our minds as someone with more authenticity than either of the other two Democratic candidates on the stage at that moment.

And who’s leading now?