I took in the Michelle Obama Show this week in Charlotte, N.C.

The wife of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was in town for an election-eve get-out-the-vote rally, to make sure that Obama voters were fired up and ready to go for Tuesday’s primary.

Usually, such events are rah-rah, go-team affairs. But Mrs. Obama’s appearance was a little different.

It was an hour-long tale of resentment and anger.

First, she complained at great length that her husband had been treated unfairly in the Democratic presidential race. Every time he made a move forward, she said, “they” — she never spelled out exactly who “they” were — moved the goalposts a bit farther away from him.

First, “they” said he couldn’t raise the money necessary to run a big-league campaign.

But “once he proved that he could raise the money, then all of a sudden money didn’t matter,” Mrs. Obama told the crowd. “Everybody said, ‘Well, money isn’t important.’ ”

Then “they” said the test for Obama would be whether he could build a political organization. But “once it was built, they said it’s not an organization — the stakes changed again.”

Next, “they” said Obama had to win Iowa. But “once he won Iowa, then all of a sudden Iowa was no longer important.”

“They” had moved the bar again. This time, Obama had to win a primary state.

“Then we rolled into South Carolina,” Mrs. Obama said. “Then you know what they said? They said South Carolina didn’t count, because Barack was supposed to win.”

Then came Super Tuesday, and after that Obama’s stretch of victories in a series of primary and caucus states.

Still, Mrs. Obama complained, “they” tried to undermine her husband every step of the way.

“We’ve learned that we’re still living in a time and in a nation where the bar is set, right?” she said.

“They tell you all you need to do is do these things and you’ll get to the bar, so you go about the business of doing those things.

“You start working hard and sacrificing, and you think you’re getting closer to the bar, you’re working and you’re struggling, you get right to that bar, you’re reaching out for the bar, and then what happens?

“They raise the bar. Raise the bar. Shift it to the side. Keep it just out of reach.

“And that’s just what’s been happening in this race.”

All the while, the crowd cheered as Mrs. Obama listed one supposed injustice after another.

Now, it should be noted that her husband was, at that moment, on the verge of a blowout victory in North Carolina, one that would spur new calls for his opponent to drop out of the race.

So you might have thought Michelle Obama would be a pretty happy camper.

Instead, you got the sense that she was angry that the Democratic Party did not, at some early point in the race, simply award her husband the nomination by acclamation.

Instead, he had to face an opponent who — get this — really wanted to win it for herself.

Mrs. Obama had lots of other complaints, too.

She’s irritated at those people who have suggested that she and Sen. Obama are elitists.

And she appears to be still outraged — at this late date — by the fact that she had to take out loans to attend Princeton and Harvard Law School.

It took her years to pay them back, something she has kvetched about in numerous public appearances.

Imagine that! First she had to borrow money to go to some of the world’s most selective and expensive schools — schools whose graduates usually do pretty well in the world — and then they made her pay it back.

There “they” go again.

If you’re wondering how that negative message went across in Charlotte, the answer is, it went over very well.

This was as pro-Obama a crowd as you could find in a decidedly pro-Obama state.

So look for Mrs. Obama to continue sending out her message of dissatisfaction and resentment.

She appears to have begun the presidential race in an angry mood, and, despite her husband’s extraordinary success, it looks like she’ll finish it angry, too.

York is a White House correspondent for National Review. His column appears in The Hill each week. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it