I Heart Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama's performance Monday night was spectacular. She was confident, warm, relaxed and eloquent, also smart, beautiful,radiant, gracious, stylish, humorous and tall. I want to be her when I grow up. She accomplished, seemingly effortlessly, what she had to do: she replaced the angry-black-Pantherish terrorist- fist-bumping Michelle of right-wing (and not only right-wing) fantasy with Michelle, the normal, everyday, working-class-rooted loving wife and (working) mother. She presented herself and her family -- her parents, her brother, her daughters, and her husband -- as part of an ongoing all-American story of devotion to faith, family, hard work,community, sports, and, yes, country.

When she talked about her childhood--her father and his slow deterioriation from multiple sclerosis, her parent's hopes and sacrifices for her and her brother--I cried. I know, I know, how hokey that is, but I'll bet all over America, people were wiping their eyes.

In her column about the speech, even Mona Charen paused momentarily in her Obama-bashing labors to declare herself moved and impressed. Then, of course, it was back to business: Michelle's 1985 Princeton senior thesis, the Rev. Wright, a quotation from a New Yorker profile suggesting that Michelle Obama thinks America has some problems--because that is just so, so not true.

About that thesis: How desperate must conservative pundits be that they are combing this ancient document for traces of black militance? How would Mona Charen like to be judged by a paper she wrote in college? Christopher Hitchens joined the hunt in a particularly unhinged and paranoid column in Slate back in May. Beginning with a lordly sneer at young Michelle's prose ("not written in any known language"), he seizes on a passing acknowledgment of Black Power, a book which Stokely Carmichael co-authored with Charles V. Hamilton in l967, to tie her to Carmichael's subsequent career as a black-nationalist Pan-African separatist, and thence to African dictators, antisemitism, Louis Farrakhan and the murder of Malcolm X.

I should have written about this column when it first appeared, but frankly, I didn't want to join the let's all-talk- about-Christopher-incessantly circus. I was remiss: It was a low, disgraceful smear, tantamount to accusing a writer who cites Marx of being a Soviet spy-- or, for that matter, a man who briefly attended a nominally Muslim school in childhood of being a secret Muslim and best friend of Osama bin Laden.

First Ladyhood is a retrograde job, sort of like being the national spokesmodel. Still it's a great thing that an accomplished black woman might soon be taking it on. It doesn't speak so well of the electorate, though, that Michelle Obama has to hide her light of career-womanhood and, yes, African-American experience under a great big bushel of bland middle-American family-values conformity. The whole speech was about reassuring white Americans that she was just like them, (as they imagine themselves to be): none of her relatives are on drugs or welfare or in prison.

For all her evident-but-never-specified professional success, she's basically a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother: black people have families! If you closed your eyes, the only way you'd know she was black was her emotional reference to Martin Luther King. According to her brother's video introduction, her favorite TV show as a child was The Brady Bunch. Whew! What if it had been Soul Train?

I would love to see Michelle Obama living in the White House and representing America abroad. But she must really love her husband-- and believe that business about being the change you want to see in the world -- -- to be willing to spend four, or even eight, years soothing white America's racial and gender anxieties.

Comments (49)

1. Really, I think outside of the Rush and Hannity Crowd...

   the "Michelle hates America and white folks" rap doesn't fly.

   Mostly because it SOUNDS as dopey as it is.

   Posted by Maskdelta at 08/28/2008 @ 09:53am

2. This is superb. As usual, Katha Pollitt nails it. Sadly, it all boils down to whether enough of the electorate has grown up and can bring itself to pull the lever for a half-black candidate.

   --jl

   Posted by judithlong at 08/28/2008 @ 11:06am

3. Katha, you've nailed it!!! I would like to add that the Obamas have proven themselves again,and again, and again. The fact that they continue to show grace under fire is only further testament to THEIR readiness for the positions they seek.

   Posted by DedicatedDiva at 08/28/2008 @ 11:12am

4. Why did President Clinton speqk at the convention but not JOhn Edwards?

   Posted by Mistral at 08/28/2008 @ 11:13am

5. "Why did President Clinton speak at the convention but not John Edwards?"

   1. Bill Clinton was a popular two -term president, John Edwards was a not especially popular one-term senator and two-strikes failed veep/presidential candidate.

   2. Clinton did his screwing around (and getting blown) over a decade ago, Edwards did his last year and got caught and exposed this year.

   Nobody said it was fair. Edwards, for all his expensive grooming and his mansion, brought the issues of class and poverty back into Dem discourse, and overall had better politics than either of the other two major contenders. (Not better than Kucinich, though.) I wish his vanity had not gotten the better of him. But now at least the Dems have to talk about the dire economic conditions facing a plurality of Americans. You could hear echoes of his rhetoric in Hillary's and especially in Biden's speeches.

   Posted by AdamCornford at 08/28/2008 @ 11:25am

6. I don't know about the "as usual" part but Ms. Pollitt did indeed nail it! Great job, Ms. Pollitt. Really, great job. The fact that she had to make that speech to assuage fears was a bit insulting in itself. Nevertheless, Mrs. Obama did the damn thang. She's so impressive. I am so proud. Go girl!

   Posted by k330k at 08/28/2008 @ 11:29am

7. I think Americans need to wake up and quit treating Obama as a super star. He is just a man. He is not God and will not turn us around even in his term. You have to look at it as we did not get in this shape overnight neither will anybody get us out overnight. Congress needs to be looked at harder than our presidents. They continue to give themselves hefty pay increases. Where does anybody else assign their own pay increases other than an owner of a business. Why do they have that much power. Why shouldn't the american people be in charge of their pay increases. They run when a real issue needs to be addressed. (Gas prices)They each have at least 2 homes. Some don't even work while they are out campaigning but they still get a pay check for doing nothing. Real people have to work for their paycheck. Lets hear the issues for the candidates. I am tired of hearing the negatives for the other candidate. What are you going to do for the average Joe? What can you realistically do for the average Joe? You can do some of the things you have promised but the others is just a dream not a reality.

   Posted by matthewssharnita at 08/28/2008 @ 11:46am

8. Posted by Mistral at 08/28/2008 @ 11:13am

   Mistral, would we be right in assuming you have a problem with men who cheat on their wives?!??!?

   Posted by Maskdelta at 08/28/2008 @ 11:59am

9. "I Heart Michelle Obama"

   it's all sooooooo cliché........

   Posted by frosty zoom at 08/28/2008 @ 12:09pm

10. "First Ladyhood is a retrograde job, sort of like being the national spokesmodel."

    awright!

    wet t-shirt night at the white house!

    $2.99 pitchers and FREE jell-o shots before 9:00.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 08/28/2008 @ 12:13pm

11. soul train is WAY better than the brady bunch....

    CORNELIUS '08

    -- Put Some Sooooooooouuuuullllll in the House! --

    Posted by frosty zoom at 08/28/2008 @ 12:16pm

12. Posted by 2HAPPY at 08/28/2008 @ 12:13pm

    HAPP, if Obama gets elected...

    Are you going to say such "disrespectful of authority" things in front of your grandkids?!??!?!?

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/28/2008 @ 12:22pm

13. Posted by lvliberty1 at 08/28/2008 @ 12:33pm

    Fair enough, LVLIB....then if we discover the KKK is voting Republican...

    that counts too, right?

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/28/2008 @ 12:36pm

14. Posted by 2HAPPY at 08/28/2008 @ 12:35pm

    Yeah, we don't need those "Hollywood types"...

    "Wedding Crashers" (2005)

    Owen Wilson ... John Beckwith

    Vince Vaughn ... Jeremy Grey

    Christopher Walken ... Secretary William Cleary

    Rachel McAdams ... Claire Cleary

    Isla Fisher ... Gloria Cleary

    Jane Seymour ... Kathleen Cleary

    John McCain ... Himself (uncredited)

    (www.imdb.com)

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/28/2008 @ 12:40pm

15. Lvliberty-Not caring about race must be the reason that Rush and his conservative cult keep reminding everyone that Obama is black.They keep doing that because race doesn't matter?Just keep telling yourself that and,someday,you might believe it.

    Posted by i'm nobody at 08/28/2008 @ 12:42pm

16. Posted by 2HAPPY at 08/28/2008 @ 12:39pm

    I DID give you an answer, HAPP.

    I explained how you're going to be the biggest hypocrite in the world if Obama is elected on your "respect for authority" mantra.

    How many times will you call President Obama "Half & Half" in front of the grandkids???????

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/28/2008 @ 12:42pm

17. Posted by i'm nobody at 08/28/2008 @ 12:42pm

    They don't do that, nobody.

    They just keep mentioning things like "Magic _____" and "Half & Half".

    Shameful if Obama is elected how RUSH will "dis-respect authority" in front of the kids!!! Might lead to suicide bombings in another culture!

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/28/2008 @ 12:44pm

18. Mask-The round about way to keep reminding everyone that Obama is black.Someone needs to let Happy know that respect is earned and not given.

    Posted by i'm nobody at 08/28/2008 @ 12:53pm

19. Posted by i'm nobody at 08/28/2008 @ 12:53pm

    Oh, no. I'm hoping HAPP proves me right.

    Obama gets elected and suddenly his principle of "don't teach the kids to disrespect authority" gets put to the test the first time the grandkids are in the room when HAPP is listening to Limbaugh!

    Will he turn it off...or turn it up so the kids can hear the latest Paul Shanklin parody????

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/28/2008 @ 1:38pm

20. 2HAPPY is not a happy camper and he's shuddering in anticipation of years of (dare I say it?) progressive government lying ahead.

    My guess is that 2HAPPY is of the Ayn Rand turn of mind. "I've got mine and I don't give a rat's ass whether you have yours or not." Of course I may be wrong. He may be one of those servile wretches who revel vicariously in the plush life of the rich, slavishly accepting the notion that they deserve their tax cuts, their access to the power centers and everything else they can swallow, while the rest of us deserve only that which trickles down

    So 2HAPPY thinks that Barack is going to overdo it tonight, production-wise? When it comes to big productions (financed with taxpayer money, to add insult to injury) nothing can outglitz W's big moment: arrival by military helicopter aboard the USS Lincoln in a flight suit (trying to appear like the combat pilot he never was) before the all hands on deck assembly decked out in class A uniforms in front of that huge MISSION ACCOMPLISHED banner. That's GLITZ.....and BOMBAST for you. You'd have to be brain dead to want four more years of the kind of leadership that exemplifies.

    Posted by mortsel at 08/28/2008 @ 1:42pm

21. Posted by lvliberty1 at 08/28/2008 @ 1:43pm

    What if it was a bit more "subtle", Larry?

    Like say guys like Trent Lott and MIKE HUCKABEE speaking at the "Council of Conservative Citizens"...

    which is the new name of the..."White Citizen's Council"?!???!?

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/28/2008 @ 1:50pm

22. The left wingnuts gleefully repeat ad nauseam that Obama is black, but take offense when the right wingnuts say that Obama is black. I have observed that the left wingnuts bring up Obama's race more frequently than the right wingnuts.

    Now, we have Ms. Pollitt - left-leaning to say the least - delving into race and lamenting that Mrs. Obama may have to mollify a demographic portion of the electorate. Sorry, Ms. Pollitt, but keeping those voters happy is what politicians have to do in their constant quest for their number one concern - winning the next election.

    Posted by jsens at 08/28/2008 @ 2:00pm

23. 2HAPPY is not a happy camper and he's shuddering in anticipation of years of (dare I say it?) progressive government lying ahead.

    Posted by mortsel at 08/28/2008 @ 1:42pm

    put down that pipe!

    Posted by frosty zoom at 08/28/2008 @ 2:20pm

24. you would even suggest that I would for one minute, condone racism or racists.

    Posted by lvliberty1 at 08/28/2008 @ 2:05pm

    no way!

    everybody knows we must discriminate based on religious beliefs.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 08/28/2008 @ 2:23pm

25. lwliberty1 wrote: "It's not about race for most conservatives like myself. It's about their politics. Conservatives will rally this fall against the marxist dreams of Barack and Michelle Obama."

    I get tired of Conservatives defining everything not in boot step with their ideals Socialist or Marxist. How about we define all Conservatives as being the: FU party?

    If you need a job not a handout the conservative response: FU.

    Need affordable housing? FU you should have gotten a well paid job.

    If you can't afford health, FU your health problems are stupid lifestyle choices you made so why should I/we pay for you. Just die quietly but don't let your corpse fall in my/our way.

    Your union gave back to many concessions? 'Dems the breaks for using outdate socialist policies?

    You used to work at World-com or Enron? You didn't jump yet? There are plenty of skyscrapers in Virginia and Texas. Pick one. Just remember the inconvenient corpse thing in item four above.

    Suffering under a mountainous student loan / mortgage / credit card debt, FU. When you can't afford it you're poor. When you can afford it you're not poor. Poverty sucks but stop trying to 'buy" your way out of it, stupid!

    Pension just dried up. Should been more proactive in saving instead of relying on others to do that for you, idiot!

    If a rick banker swindled you out of hard earn cash, FU you should have played the game better.

    If you feel you've been discriminated against in housing, education, at the workspace, FU because blacks no longer get a free ride, we've had enough of that level the playing field BS; fat people fast for a month or five for Gods-sake! It won't kill you not to eat and you could probably used the savings to pay off some bill your lazy butt has allowed to lapse; women you

    Posted by Jacquie at 08/28/2008 @ 2:38pm

26. The rant ends here:

    ...were better off at home and so were we all. You've allowed your politics to be determined by the discontented, which we used to call the insane. You know folks that CAN'T deal with the status quo?; and you others with weird sounding names are probably here illegally and should be forcibly sent back to where ever they came from preferably after we've gotten all the free work hours we can out of you.

    If you find yourself young, unwed and pregnant and for whatever reason you're not up for parenting, FU you should acted more like a lady than a slut. Off to motherhood you go. And we don't want to hear about older men preying on younger women. Smart women get the ring first.

    Basically most conservatives, proudly Christian, are truly the sons and daughters of Cain, for when asked about their "brother" they all respond: "F that I'm not my brother's keeper! That bastard is on his own."

    A sentiment not in keeping with the founder of the religion they hold dear. Upon reading the chronicle of his life and teachings, he seemed to surround himself with so-called socialists, marxists, and uncool people: the sick, the homeless, the sex industry workers. etc. Curiously he seemed to condemn the narrow-mindedness and selfishness of so called conservatives of his day and was rewarded by being crucified by them.

    It sucks doesn't it, when some redefines your experiences and beliefs through derision and ridicule?

    Posted by Jacquie at 08/28/2008 @ 2:41pm

27. I'd like to address this issue further. I find it offensive that since you know I have a family of color, you would even suggest that I would for one minute, condone racism or racists.---Posted by lvliberty1 at 08/28/2008 @ 2:05pm

    Not condone...just not "look real hard" and give a wiiiiiiiiiiiide latitude of benefit of the doubt (to say Huckabee..."it was just a video and it was 15 years ago...Gosh!")...

    when it's conservatives or the Republican Party.

    David Duke?...naw. You'd condemn it.

    But the more "undercover" racists or racism...well....as long as it stopped the "marxists and socialists", you could grant that maybe it is just a "youthful indiscretion" or "was YEARS ago...almost ten!"

    For instance, how many times have you chastised HAPPY2 for calling Obama "Half & Half"???

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/28/2008 @ 2:46pm

28. The left wingnuts gleefully repeat ad nauseam that Obama is black, but take offense when the right wingnuts say that Obama is black.----Posted by jsens at 08/28/2008 @ 2:00pm

    The left's comments are usually "It's historic, the first African-American major party candidate. Shows the progress we've made."

    The right's comments on Obama's race are usually "He'll invite Black Panthers to the Inaugural! He probably sold drugs in high school! He wants to turn the White House into public housing!!!!"

    Slight difference

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/28/2008 @ 2:50pm

29. In a battle of the minds, I am always confident when confronted by an unarmed opponent.

    Posted by lvliberty1 at 08/28/2008 @ 2:46pm

    bring it on clusterboy.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 08/28/2008 @ 2:50pm

30. Posted by lvliberty1 at 08/28/2008 @ 2:51pm

    1. My son is Latino. So cut out the self-righteousness.

    2. I SAID you wouldn't condone OVERT racism ("David Duke"). But you'd give Huckabee a pass for his "video" to the CoCC, because he's "good" on the issues and a fellow preacher.

    Is Huckabee a racist?....Probably not. But he also showed the same laissez-faire'ness towards them by address the CoCC when EVERYBODY knew they used to be the White Citizen's Council.

    3. You don't consider HAPPY calling Obama "Half and Half" or "Magic" (aka "Magic NEGRO") to be "motivated by racism"??!?!?!???

    I rest my case.

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/28/2008 @ 3:03pm

31. 2. I don't condone racists-period. There is no place in America or the Republican party for racism.

    Posted by lvliberty1 at 08/28/2008 @ 2:51pm

    "You don't like people from outside the state coming in and telling you what to do with your flag. In fact, if somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we'd tell 'em what to do with the pole; that's what we'd do."

    mike huckabee on the confederate flag.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 08/28/2008 @ 3:04pm

32. Posted by lvliberty1 at 08/28/2008 @ 2:46pm

    The FU political positon:

    1. Namecalling: [blah blah blah] ignorant statements of someone like yourself [blah blah blah] ignorant of [blah blah blah]

    2. Unsupported characterizations: most leftists [blah blah blah] and in your case [blah blah blah]

    3. Conflict loving warmongering even when just debating issues: In a battle of the minds, I am always confident when confronted by an unarmed [blah blah blah].

    Thanks for proving my sarcastic rant true. Gotta get back to to well paying job.

    Posted by Jacquie at 08/28/2008 @ 3:36pm

33. And as I noted, once the truth about them came to light, the RNC formally condemned them as racist.----Posted by lvliberty1 at 08/28/2008 @ 3:13pm

    Once it was PUBLICALLY revealed....they formally condemned it.

    Again, EVERYBODY knew the CoCC was the old White Citizen's Council "re-vamped".

    Anybody who didn't was so out of touch they must be an idiot...or DELIBERATELY "looking the other way" because they were good, solid REPUBLICAN votes and they needed them.

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/28/2008 @ 4:04pm

34. Posted by lvliberty1 at 08/28/2008 @ 3:29pm

    Posted by lvliberty1 at 08/28/2008 @ 4:10pm

    No, becuase you live in Southern California....but I'll bet ol' Mike Huckabee in Arkansas (home of the Little Rock School...heard of that?) did.

    BTW, re-read your interveiw with Alan Colmes and Huckabee...

    why doesn't Mike EVER answer Alan's question about whether he finds the flag offensive or a sign of racism?

    Because if he did...he'd lose some Republican votes.

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/28/2008 @ 4:34pm

35. hey liberty, please define marxism, and then tell us how obama fits into the category of marxist.

    Posted by darladoon at 08/28/2008 @ 5:03pm

36. i like when people with issues of race bask in their own bit of white privilege, never acknowledging how it affects their thinking, outlook, etc. Point it out to them and they get riled up in righteous moral outrage. Then they duck behind their friend, partner, family, [insert-as-u-wish] of color as the proof positive that they don't have a bigoted bone in their body. meanwhile, they turn the term "racism" into such a loaded word that it no longer has any meaning--unless applied to some extremists like the Nazis or the KKK. Nice trick.

    Posted by sincere1906 at 08/28/2008 @ 5:14pm

37. Huckabee weaseled out of answering the direct question and Maskdelta has it right about why he bobbed and weaved, shuffled and shucked.

    lvliberty didn't know about CCC, but that's probably because, like so many other Republicans, he wears blinders when it comes to dealing with nasty right wing racist organizations and right wing groups that support the subversion of our constitutional rights. Only after liberals expose such organizations repeatedly do many Republicans take notice and grudgingly express condemnation.

    We'll have to keep pointing out 2Happy's bias until lvliberty grudgingly admits what is readily apparent to most liberals.

    Posted by mortsel at 08/28/2008 @ 5:40pm

38. Posted by darladoon at 08/28/2008 @ 5:03pm

    DD, LVLIB is fairly consistant in saying pretty much everything done on domestic policy since ROOSEVELT (maybe Franklin, maybe TEDDY!) is "Marxism".

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/28/2008 @ 7:52pm

39. We lived in Canada for sixteen years and have many good friends in Toronto and Montreal and we still stay in touch. Last Sunday on the telephone I asked my friend in Toronto if she was following the US Election Campaign and she answered, "Not to insult your system or your politics but I find the whole thing so immature that I want to suggest that it be transcibed in cartoon format and shown to the children on Saturday mornings". During our years living in Canada and witnessing their political campaigns and Elections I know where she is coming from. There, elections and campaigns are about issues and discussed with empirical topis being debated and without "mud-slinging" or immature candidates whose records and actions seldom justify their qualifications. Both Obama and McCain would be chewed to pieces by a very junior backbencher in the Canadian Parliament on the discussion on NAFTA, an issue on which every single Canadian believes that they are being ripped-off by the United States on oil, gas and natural resources. Our National newspapers and other media churn out propoganda about the failure of the Canadian Healthcare system to divert millions of exploited and uninsured Americans from the real success of this plan. Our candidates in both parties are either ignorant of the facts or choose to keep us in the dark. Michelle Obama had a stage and an opportunity to talk about her husband's plans for Real Change, women's right to choose with paid health coverage, day-care centres and equal pay, things that women in Canada, on the same continent, not on the moon, enjoy because of their political involvement. We have a long way to go, so go..go..go..and mean it.

    Posted by Harry G. at 08/28/2008 @ 8:11pm

40. Posted by 2HAPPY at 08/28/2008 @ 7:52pm

    HAPPY--- "Some of my best friends are Half & Halfs!"

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/28/2008 @ 8:58pm

41. I'm watching the DNC from Australia and I find it amazing that when presented with a candidate of this calibre, with a spouse of this calibre, it's all about appeasing unspoken racism and fear from the middle classes. We waited more than a decade to elect a leader who has some integrity and vision, and a wife with some independence and grit and at least as many brains as him... and it was a long, hard, depressing decade that led to Kevin Rudd's arrival on the scene. Sure, he's not perfect, but compared to the last guy, this is heaven. Just thank your lucky stars or whoever you pray to that you finally have a candidate that is worthy of the job!

    Posted by Candylein at 08/28/2008 @ 9:35pm

42. "For all her evident-but-never-specified professional success, she's basically a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother: black people have families!"

    Uh,who doesn't know that?

    Posted by jackdav at 08/28/2008 @ 10:48pm

43. "For all her evident-but-never-specified professional success, she's basically a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother: black people have families!"

    Uh,who doesn't know that?

    Posted by jackdav at 08/28/2008 @ 10:48pm

44. All of this catty fighting is pretty silly from both sides. You guys need to discuss issues of substance and not go after eachother with this , "Racist/I'm not a racist and don't care that you think I am" silliness.

    LV, you said : "Not at all. When I read the ignorant statements of someone like yourself, it just reaffirms that most leftists are ignorant of our constitution and in your case also of Christ's teachings."

    I am a Southern Baptist young woman who is planning on going to a part of the world to translate the Bible for those people that need a relationship with Christ. I am also African-American, from the south and realize that this is a liberal blog (So if it makes you upset, why do you come here and other republicans come here to stir things up and work yourselves into a hate frenzy?)

    Also, How can you mention someone's misinformation about the teachings of Jesus as you condemn others in such an acidic and nasty way. This is just a tender rebuke so you can think about that. You can continue and post the way that you like, but I would suggest that you not tell others (who probably don't even know Christ at all), that they need to get it together about his sayings. In fact, being you brother's keeper was in the Old Testament and "Brother's Keeper" is from the Cain and Abel story, so actually that person was right. They did not quote a verse, just paraphrased.

    So, not all leftists are communists, ignorant of scripture and the Constitution. I don't support abortion but that is where my differences stand in being a democrat. Our hearts should be to build people up and not to tear them down, LV. That's what satan wants us to be. Christians should take there roles on earth more seriously and know throw that title around lightly.

    Posted by SBC4Obama at 08/29/2008 @ 04:22am

45. Oh, I do not support gay marriage either, but yo can't go and abuse and insult others because they don't believe in what you deem to be true. That goes for ALL of us.

    Posted by SBC4Obama at 08/29/2008 @ 04:25am

46. Katha Pollitt showed how narrow-minded and prejudiced her generation of second-wave feminists can be when confronted with a new generation of powerful woman. Her comment "if you close your eyes, the only way you could tell she was black..." was so offensive I'm surprised the editors kept it in. So this is what every black woman should aspire to, right? Sounding more "white," (i.e. more "educated," more "eloquent") than the average black woman? Reminds me too much of Biden's racist "clean, well-dress, well-spoken comment" about Obama.Wake up and smell the change, Katha. I heart Michelle because she IS a black woman, sounds like a black woman, and has succeeded as a person, not because she sounds white.

    Posted by liz925 at 08/29/2008 @ 11:23am

47. If you want to keep racism alive in America then hire more writers like Katha Pollitt. Subtle it may be, but definitely a return to Jim Crow!

    Posted by Harry G. at 08/29/2008 @ 3:39pm

48. For crying out loud, "Liz925" and "Harry G.," Katha Pollitt's description of Michelle Obama's affected "whiteness" wasn't praise of whiteness as such, it was just that - a description. I don't believe it is easy to overlook Pollitt's main points, which are that firstly, Michelle Obama has a talent for soothing white guilt, and secondly, that soothing white guilt is a lamentable professional duty to impose upon an intelligent black woman for four to eight years. Yet you both have managed to overlook both of these main points, haven't you?

    Posted by JakobFabian at 08/29/2008 @ 8:30pm

49. Well, there are pockets of this country where others share the love. I think Michelle Obama is a huge part of why Barack won North Carolina's primary. She drew a huge crowd in Raleigh, and was well received everywhere she went in the state. And when I saw Barack speak in front of a packed Dean Dome (18,000+ people) back in the spring, the biggest applause line of the night was when he referenced "the next first lady, Michelle Obama." Brought the house down.

    And I *really* don't think it's a "militant black revolutionary secret muslim" vibe that makes Mrs. O so popular in the Tar Heel state. I think it's because folks here have long known that Michelle truly does "get it."

    NC <3 Michelle!

    Posted by thisniss at 08/30/2008 @ 02:55am