Full disclosure: I feel awful today.  Vaguely half-nauseous, having what we will gently call ‘digestive issues,’ generally logy and possibly congested: it seemed like an excellent time to take it easy.  It would take a definite electoral disaster to pierce this fog of illness, in short.

And Michelle Obama delivered.

[mc_name name=’Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’B001259′ ] never even served. How does FLOTUS think he’s a USMC vet?

— Jimmy (@JimmyPrinceton) October 10, 2014

Here’s the video of the event: it autoplays and I can’t turn it off, so skip ahead to 3:28 – where, indeed, the First Lady called [mc_name name=’Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’B001259′ ] a USMC veteran*. I hope I need hardly note that [mc_name name=’Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’B001259′ ] is not, in point of fact, a military veteran? And that, in fact, his opponent Joni Ernst is still serving in the military? That Ernst, indeed, was deployed to Kuwait for Operation Iraqi Freedom? – Because everybody else in that room – heck, in Iowa – knew that**.

Tell me again how having the First Lady swoop into problematic races is going to be helpful to the Democrats. No, really, tell me. Because I already know how it’s proving to be helpful to the GOP.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*Actually, that’s a fib: she called Bruce Bailey a Marine.

VIDEO: Michelle Obama Confuses [mc_name name=’Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’B001259′ ] With “Bruce Bailey” http://t.co/8NdVKqTWpj #IASEN — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 10, 2014

In Mrs. Obama’s defense, It’s A Wonderful Life is in fact an underrated film, and possibly not quite suited for our cynical era. Nonetheless: the woman needs to go home and fire some people.

**The most likely excuse here is that Bruce Braley is the son of a Marine veteran. Well, I’m the son of a Navy veteran who ended seeing land combat in Korea (lonnnnng story), but you don’t see me trying to claim that I was at Inchon. Or letting anybody else claim that for me, either.