Scrutinizing Michelle Obama

I meant, another woman's husband! Mea maxima culpa!

So, she left corporate America for a stint doing community work and didn't then, for legal clarity make sure to go through her subsequent re-entry into corporate America and this makes her suspect HOW? What the heck does that have to do with anything? How many lawyers leave their law firms for community work for even a brief amount of time, especially when fairly young? But because hers was a temporary respite, it doesn't count and because she didn't talk about going back in, she's a liar?!?!?!

I'm with Richard Bottoms 100% on this one. Let's see, we have Angela Davis's black radical character and Oprah added to "angry" and "ungrateful" in the past. Any other racially tinged stereotypes you'd like to trot out while you're at it? A comparison of her high paying job to welfare payments to hood rats, perhaps? And you get to be the judge of "who she really is" because . . . ? What - you don't like something she said in Charlotte or found her master's thesis inane? May God grant that the rest of us don't go through having our actual experiences disregarded while every word we utter is judged based on stereotypes of who a black woman is vs who she should be. I actually disagree with about 90% of the Obama's positions, but even I am appalled at the hatched job being aimed at Mrs. Obama by the conservative press. Blegh. Just revolting.

RB:

A sense of humor and an appreciation for comic hyperbole has never been one of Richard's strengths.

Tur: Shouldn't this be about whether Obama or McCain would make a better (or at least less bad) president, not about their wives' sincerity?

Yes, but the whole point of Michelle's speech last night was to recast herself as Everywoman, and the Obama family as Normal Americans. I think she succeeded very well, and for the record, I suspect that I'd have a far easier time having dinner and drinks with the Obamas than with John and Cindy McCain. But that's neither here nor there, except in the sense that many, many Americans vote on whether or not this or that candidate can relate to Someone Like Me. I think that what Michelle did was smart politics.

I don't see a contradiction between my observing that it's a pity that candidates use their families as political props today, and saying that if a candidate's wife is going to insert herself into the campaign, that she deserves a certain level of scrutiny. You can't say that we have to accept Michelle Obama's (or Cindy McCain's) self-narrative without question, insofar as either wife is using her self-narrative to sell her husband's candidacy.

"That settles it: I'm not voting for Michelle Obama."

ROFL.

How DARE she raise a nice family, use her education, work with the poor, and hope for the future.

Is it accurate to say that MO is using her story to sell her husband, or more accurate to suggest that PR demands on candidates' spouses require her to open herself to this scrutiny? In such an environment you pick the best elements you can, not bring the list you would take to confession.

What crimes has this woman committed? Saints preserve us - she RETURNED to the profession for which she prepared. She is not "grateful" enough for all that America did for her.

White men get points for being Self Made, even when born with silver spoons in their mouths (or marrying wives so born). Apparently blacks and women are supposed to be sooooo grateful for "all we've done for you."

Lock her up.

So who is Michelle Obama REALLY? And how do you know?

or more accurate to suggest that PR demands on candidates' spouses require her to open herself to this scrutiny?

I miss the days when a candidate's wife was just a candidate's wife. Not an asset to be exploited, nor a liability to critiqued.

But maybe I'm missing a time that never actually was. Since the days when Callendar spread the stories about Jefferson and Sally Hemings, a candidate's person life has always been considered fair game.

It bothers me that people are starting to critique her, as if she were running for something. On the other hand, if she gets actively involved in the campaign, she's fair game. And, I hate to say it, if she uses her kids as political props, so are they, in a way.

Almost makes me nostalgic for the days when the Clintons kept Chelsea so far out of sight that many voters apparently thought the Clintons were childless.

Michelle Obama has only one thing in common with Angela Davis and Oprah Winfrey. Both are supremely odd comparisons. Michelle Obama is an intelligent, accomplished woman with an Ivy League education, a mainstream corporate history, a Christian faith, and a stable and traditional family (both in upbringing and marriage). Is she, despite her station in life, retaining some anger about the way black people have been treated? Why wouldn't she? You're doing pretty well yourself, Rod, yet you must whip out that "casting stones" label five times a day and use the persecuted Christian schtick to great effect. If she's Angela Davis, you're Fred Phelps.

What a shameful post. I deleted this bookmark for a few months after your first Michelle Obama obsession, and I'm pretty close again.

The last post was me--sorry!

I'd have a far easier time having dinner and drinks with the Obamas than with John and Cindy McCain.

Just don't let Cindy get into the medicine cabinet.

Is anyone else here as appalled as I am by the cheap shots being hurled at Cindy McCain?

"DonF," for exapmple, makes a lot of wild, reckless accusations that, were they even remotely true, would have been muckraked long ago by the MSM. The boorish comments by "anishnaube" also hint at the vilification of Mrs. McCain which we can expect to endure during the next 10 weeks from the extreme left.

I don't know very much about Mrs. McCain but I am impressed by the many children she has raised -- including a Bangladeshi orphan she brought home in the early 1990s at the request of Mother Theresa and children from her husband's first marriage. As for those so-called "seven" homes, the news reports are that some are rental properties and one is a home she set up for an ailing elderly relative.

One difference between Michelle O. and Cindy M. is that Mrs. Obama very early chose to take a conspicously public role in her husband's campaign including speaking out on issues and making a number of controversial statements. The scrutiny some of you have complained about is one she brought on herself.

The background and previous public statements of the Empress-Wannabe leaves much to be desired, and causes me much consternation.

During her college days at Princeton, she wrote at least one rather scathing paper on how her "people" were still being oppressed. ("Bwah-hah-hah, wench, I'll show you ! I shall torture and demean you by condemning you to the BA program at an Ivy League college !") This demonstrates either a complete lack of contact with reality, or quasi-revolutionary, Marxist sentiments.

She disparages working in the private sector, yet she has no qualms about taking a $ 300,000/year job in the "diversity management" field. Raw parasitism at its very best.

She has complained, during the primary campaign, about not being able to finance her children's various dance lessons/leisure activities. If she and her spousal unit are really incapable of doing so on a combined family income of over $ 500,000 per year, then they have no good business being anywhere near a position of influence over the finances of a country.

She has supposedly only been "proud of [her] country" once her husband came close to seizing the Democratic nomination. If her expressed sentiments are truly accurate, despite her top-1-percent-level income, social position and real political power, then she is either a truly cold, bitter woman or a selfish ingrate of the first rank.

She's either Lady MacBeth or Madame Defarge. Take your pick. Either way, she is not someone I would have anywhere near the corridors of power.

Your servant,

Lord Karth

Shawn your subjectively divided outrage of slurs tossed at Cindy and NO mention of this columnist's slurs against Michelle...reeks of hypocricy.
either BOTH candidate's wives are off limits or NEITHER are.

show of hands...MINE

Angela Davis: socialist, former Jim Jones & Peoples Temple sympathizer, leftist intellectual, lesbian, opponent of the prison-industrial complex. currently a professor at UC Santa Cruz

Oprah: unnecessary last name Winfrey, TV personality, strongly focused on practical solutions to problems people face, "spiritual but not religious," likes to read novels with tragic twists, an Obama supporter (does he need a first name?), and the most successful African-American bootstrap rich woman in US history

Michelle Obama: raised by working class parents who raised two remarkable children, sending them to Ivy League schools; her father, as he was dying of MS, continued to model compassion and hard work to his children; husband of Barack; mother of two; successful lawyer, administrator; community organizer

Rod Dreher: advocate of "granola conservatism;" Christian journey has taken him from Methodism to Catholicism to Eastern Orthodoxy; columnist for the Dallas Morning News

Take time to ponder each person's story named above.

Consider looking at them with "Jesus glasses".

As a follower of Jesus, I am disappointed to see two of the above (Angela and Oprah) used to slam a third.

Let us pray the "tax collector's prayer": Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Finally, I will vote for Obama in November: consider the cost before you go to war; what you do for the least you do for Jesus; Jesus' campaign kick-off (good new for the poor, liberty to the captives, healing to the hurting); give us ALL our daily bread.

The Lord be with you,

Duh------------sciple

"I don't know very much about Mrs. McCain but I am impressed by the many children she has raised -- including a Bangladeshi orphan she brought home in the early 1990s at the request of Mother Theresa"

turns out, that story isn't quite true. She never met Mother Theresa.

"and children from her husband's first marriage."

Again, not true. McCain was estranged from his children from his first marriage and they refused to attend the wedding to Cindy since she was the cause of their parents' divorce. They were raised by McCain's first wife.

Then how do you explain this gem:

"Just don't let Cindy get into the medicine cabinet."

What I see is plenty of folks making light of whatever demons Mrs. McCain has had to deal with. It's not something I attribute to decent and compassionate human beings. Surely there must be other reasons to criticize her.
Posted by: Shawn | August 26, 2008 5:49 PM

Is becoming a mistress to a married man and breaking up his marriage under the 'demons' category or the 'other reasons' category?

Fun fact - the marriage license for the second McCain union was obtained before the first McCain union was dissolved.

John wrote: Fun fact - the marriage license for the second McCain union was obtained before the first McCain union was dissolved.

I write: I am saddened by the tit for tat moralizing. Everyone I know has "demons". Some I know about. Others I don't. I follow the Crucified and Risen One who died for us. Forgiven people, forgive people.

We, humanity including the USA, are using up and polluting up our planet at a dangerous, alarming rate. That is not a Republican fact or a Democratic fact. It's not liberal or conservative. If there's going to be a debate, debate the various options of what to do about that.

Other concerns:

*the widening gap between the rich and poor

*the increasing violence, insecurity and volatility of our planet

*the US debt- both candidates are being unrealistic- here I'll go out on a line and speak the truth- we need BOTH to raise taxes AND to reduce spending- no candidate will speak the truth right now because it would be political suicide- thus, WE need to realize for sacrifice and change and not punish candidates who ignore this problem

*the meaning crisis- more stuff, more sex, more power, more glory- craving more, more, more is killing us (physically and spiritually)

Duh-sciple

Shawn NOW you blame demons for Cindy's flaws?

"What I see is plenty of folks making light of whatever demons Mrs. McCain has had to deal with. It's not something I attribute to decent and compassionate human beings. Surely there must be other reasons to criticize her"

how convenient
the demon made her KNOWINGLY break up the marriage of a disabled woman with 3 children.
the demon made her STEAL drugs from a Charity for Children when she owns UNCOUNTABLE HOMES, PLANES, PARKIN LOTS, guess Cindy McBigBucks doesn't know about BUYING drugs in Mexico, he** she could BUY ALL of Mexico.

"I've basically been admiring how effectively she's managed to give an essentially dishonest account of who she really is, for the sake of boosting her numbers."

Rod, if we had an essentially honest account of who Michelle Obama is, we'd probably have to discuss her sleepwear and the kind of mattress she sleeps on, since by now she's spent entire years of her life in slumber. Or is the percentage of time spent in an activity everything?

And it'll just keep going downhill from here until November.

Rod, I have read your previous posts on Michelle Obama . The main idea of Michelle Obama's that you disagree with is that Black women should aspire to something more than cleaning White folk's houses. Care to bring up again how a Black woman once got a promotion instead of you?

"People who have a problem with Michelle Obama dislike the ideas in her head."

Oy. You really believe that? So that's the reason we're endlessly psychoanalyzing her, labeling her "hostile," or deciding that she's lying when she says her daughters come first in her life or that her faith is important to her. It's all because we disagree with her views on, say health care?

Rod,

Thanks for your prolific, terrific blog. You often give me a lot to think about and re-consider. The conversation you offer on faith, politics, culture, values, and media is vital. I hope that we all learn from one another and are gracious to one another. (Ha! In a blog conversation... can you say "idealistic believer"?)

Anyway, I'm thinking that to be a public, prolific blogger takes a lot of guts. And there's bound to be misunderstanding. And perhaps I misunderstood you.

When you compare Michelle Obama with Angela Davis and Oprah Winfrey I couldn't help but see you using the latter as personally attacking the former. I read your words, not as an attack on ideas, but on all three people. As I summarized the three personalities above- based on public information- I see real profound among them, especially with Angela Davis and Michelle Obama.

Here's my take. There's a lot of talk about whether folks can identify with Michelle and whether Barack is elite. Michelle comes from a solid, harding working, no-nonsense family. Barack is the child of a single mother. Both defied the odds. Ivy League. Successful professionals. To me, there's is the "American story." Rags to riches.

By way of contrast, the McCains had many advantages. Riches to riches, socially-economically speaking.

So... I'm wondering whether McCain's complaint of Obama being "ambitious" is code for "uppety you know what," especially when in his book, McCain said that he was "ambitious, seeking the presidency." Why is it okay for John but not Barack?

Or... is this the Swift Boat strategy again?

I do agree that there are real issues and ideas at stake. I am disappointed that the media, following or feeding this trend I don't know, does not deal with more substance.

Graced people, grace people,

duh-sciple

But according to them, America has to CHANGE, because America is "downright mean".

No we're downright perfect.

The 30 million uninsured are so because of their own sloth. The thousands losing their homes are all be wild speculators who gamed the system and lost. Only lazy people unwilling to work two jobs are poor. Only socially degenerate brown people abuse drugs. There are no polluted rivers. The air is pristine everywhere. There are no unsafe workplaces. There are toys with lead in them. Salmonella never happens in our perfect fruits and vegetables.

The Republican party has fixing all those non-existent problems as its highest priority.

One wife
One home
One nation