Michelle Obama plays the Vegas strip. Pool report on high-end fund-raiser

WILMINGTON, DEL.–Michelle Obama headlined a fund-raiser in Las Vegas Tuesday night, giving a serious shout out to Elaine Wynn, wife of casino owner Steven Wynn. The event was at Blush, a nightclub inside Wynn Las Vegas on the strip.

Pool reporter Michael J. Mishak of the Las Vegas Sun:

Among the supporters was Elaine Wynn (wife of casino owner Steven Wynn), who, according to Mrs. Obama, was among the first with whom she discussed her husband’s prospective bid for the presidency.

“She played just as much a role in pulling me out as me,” Obama said. “She has been, unbeknownst to her, a role model for me along this journey. Her commitment and dedication gives me strength. I want to thank her for being among the first to hear this dream – at a time when it was not easy to even think about Barack Obama.”

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Pool Report — Michelle Obama at Wynn Las Vegas fundraiser

By Michael J. Mishak

Las Vegas Sun

LAS VEGAS – Michelle Obama spoke to about 100 donors and supporters tonight at Blush, a boutique nightclub inside Wynn Las Vegas on the Strip.

She spoke for 25 minutes, recounting the 21-month campaign and thanking supporters for their help. (Attendees mingled for about 20 minutes before Mrs. Obama’s entrance, sipping on wine and champagne and eating hors d’oeuvres, including scallops, prosciutto crustinis and tomato and mozzarella skewers. Most sat in a ring of plush couches in front of a small stage. Others watched from the bar. )

Among the supporters was Elaine Wynn (wife of casino owner Steven Wynn), who, according to Mrs. Obama, was among the first with whom she discussed her husband’s prospective bid for the presidency.

“She played just as much a role in pulling me out as me,” Obama said. “She has been, unbeknownst to her, a role model for me along this journey. Her commitment and dedication gives me strength. I want to thank her for being among the first to hear this dream – at a time when it was not easy to even think about Barack Obama.”

After 21 months, Mrs. Obama said, “I think we’re all ready for this journey to come to an end. It’s enough.” The audience laughed.

She said the army of dedicated volunteers had amazed her.

Barack Obama, she said, is ready to be president.

“I come here as a wife and let me tell you something: After watching my husband, and the way he’s handled himself, I know in my heart and soul he will be an extraordinary president.”

Mrs. Obama recalled her and her husband’s humble upbringings. Her father, she said, was a blue-collar, shift worker who later suffered from multiple sclerosis. Despite the struggle, he never complained, she said.

“Men like my father worked all over this country,” she said. “They could get up, go to work and take care of their families. They produced people like me. I was able to go to Princeton, Harvard and perhaps become the next first lady of the United States of America.”

She said her husband would fix the economy, repair the health care system, give all children access to college educations and end the war in Iraq.

The economy, however, dominates the campaign trail, she said.

“This isn’t politics. This is personal,” Mrs. Obama said. “Today, now, fortunately or unfortunately, everyone is feeling it. If you’re not feeling it directly you’re only a moment away from feeling it. Everyday folks are filling up their gas tanks – and that $20 means nothing anymore.”

The refrain of the night: “Barack Obama, the man I married, gets it.”

“He doesn’t get it in some theoretical, disconnected, philosophical type of way,” Mrs. Obama said. “He’s lived it.”

She recalled his upbringing, by a single mother, who died at 53 of ovarian cancer, who spent the last months of her life “not reconnecting with family or reflecting on her life but worrying about medical bills.”

Mrs. Obama added: “That happened to her. And it’s happening to millions of Americans across this country.”

Both she and her husband, she noted, required loans to attend college. Revisiting Mr. Obama’s biography, she said he had worked as a community organizer and turned down lucrative jobs on Wall Street. “Don’t we deserve a president who understands what it’s like to carry a little loan debt,” she asked. “Your man’s Barack Obama. He gets it.”

Mrs. Obama implored the crowd to contribute to the campaign effort in the last week – not just with dollars but with volunteering and speaking to their friends and relatives.

“We’ve got seven long and short days to make this happen,” she said. “Our focus now is not to take our eye off the ball. We don’t care what the polls say, what the pundits say. We don’t take anything for granted. My view is that Barack Obama is the underdog until he’s sitting in the Oval Office.”

Notables in attendance: Rep. Shelley Berkley, state Senate Minority Leader Steven Horsford, R&R Partners Chief Executive Billy Vassiliadis and casino mogul Steve Wynn.

The campaign declined to provide the price of admission.