(from remarks posted in an earlier form today)
She’s developed marvelous camera presence and it was a delight to listen, especially when she hinted at his liberal past and how it informed the decisions I agree with, but I don’t care whether “Barack” is a good father and husband and it’s humiliating that we still haven’t matured enough as a society to let First Ladies go their own way. At least Mamie didn’t pretend she had illuminations into Ike! It’s retrograde that we expect these women to play a role in these things by “humanizing” their men. As I Love Everything buddy goole noted:
“anyway, look michelle obama is just fine, but come on, our chief executive is married, that’s as far as it ought to go, don’t you think? once you get into the rhetoric of a mom-in-chief to all the wounded warriors exhorting the people into the unyielding struggle, sorry, you lost me! i just want to vote, not see off a viking funeral.
With polls showing Michelle O more popular than her husband, I agree with the strategy: of course she’ll fill DNC coffers. And I have no doubt that Bill Clinton or Barack Obama himself will deliver a DNC speech in ten years extolling their wives. But at the moment the travails of intelligent career women like Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama suppressing the liveliest parts of themselves for the sake of a Mamie Eisenhower mold still bugs the hell out of me.
