In a July 14 Washington Times article, staff writer Andrea Billups characterized the tone of a Michigan campaign event featuring Sen. Barack Obama's wife, Michelle Obama, as “as much estrogenfest as it was campaign rally” and later wrote: “Even Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm got in on the girlie show as they campaigned together.” Describing the event with Obama and Granholm, Billups wrote: "[T]he economic bantering did not begin until after the two-term Democratic governor offered a gal-pal fashion compliment, telling the cheering crowd of mainly black women that while she and Mrs. Obama had something in common as Harvard Law School graduates, she would not bare her arms in public."

From the Washington Times article:

The couches on stage were sleek and white. Think Dwell magazine meets Oprah's confessional talk lair. The tone of the event was as much estrogenfest as it was campaign rally, as Michelle Obama hit the stump in Michigan Wednesday as part of two-day Midwest swing and a revamped strategy designed to soften her image and attract more female voters, a bloc much needed for her husband to win the White House.

Even Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm got in on the girlie show as they campaigned together in struggling Pontiac, Mich. Yes, Mrs. Granholm told Mrs. Obama, her state was bleeding jobs and desperate. But the economic bantering did not begin until after the two-term Democratic governor offered a gal-pal fashion compliment, telling the cheering crowd of mainly black women that while she and Mrs. Obama had something in common as Harvard Law School graduates, she would not bare her arms in public.