Hands Off Michelle Obama

Senator Obama is whining again about people taking his wife to task. We have explained this before, and maybe this time he will get it through his thick skull. IF she is on the stump for her husband, and she says something nutty, she is going to be taken to task, just like we will take him to task over this:

This is unfortunately become a habit in our politics where anything's fair game, and we just make things up about people. If you think about Michelle, I mean here's somebody who's done everything right. She grew up in modest means. She grew up in a nuclear family. Her parents looked after her. She went to college on a scholarship. She's worked hard for everything that she has.

She is the best mother I know. She has made repeated sacrifices on behalf of her family and has said that her children and her husband are her number one priority.

So the fact that people have tried to make her a target, based essentially on a couple of comments in which she was critical of what's happening to our American dream and the enormous difficulties that people are experiencing -- the difficulties that she hears directly as she is traveling across the country, I think is really distressing. And you know I've said publicly before, and I'll say it again - I think families are off limits. I would never consider making Cindy McCain a campaign issue, and if I saw people doing that - I would speak out against it. And the fact that I haven't seen that from John McCain I think is a deep disappointment."

We have three specific instances where she opened her mouth and inserted her foot. She stated things like this:

"Because Barack Obama is the only person in this race who understands that. That before we can work on the problems we have to fix our souls. Our souls are broken in this nation ..."

"And Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your division. That you come out of your isolation. That you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual; uninvolved, uninformed."

That was from her speech at UCLA back in the beginning of February. We find it offensive for her to allege that Senator Obama can "fix our souls." We also take offense to the demands that he will place on the nation. We have free will, and we can do as we please. We do not need a nanny-stater giving us cradle to the grave assistance.

“See, because, we went to those good schools, and we didn’t have trust funds. I’m still waiting for Barack’s trust fund. Especially after I heard that Dick Cheney was s’posed to be a relative or something. Give us something here!”

“The life that I’m talking about that most people are living has gotten progressively worse since I was a little girl. . . . So if you want to pretend like there was some point over the last couple of decades when your lives were easy, I want to meet you!”

These two quotes come from the New Yorker profile of Michelle Obama. We are so sorry they do not have a trust fund, but the first quote is telling because it emphasizes the rhetoric of the Obama campaign. Sit back, relax, and we will tell you what to do, when to do it, and we will provide for you. Thomas refers to this notion as "a heart full of gimme, and a mouth full of much obliged." As to the second quote, when have things EVER been easy? We live in the greatest, freest country in the world that provides more opportunities than any other nation on the face of the planet. Better she was living here than somewhere else.

"We don’t like being pushed outside of our comfort zones. You know it right here on this campus. You know people sitting at different tables- you all living in different dorms. I was there. You’re not talking to each other, taking advantage that you’re in this diverse community. Because sometimes it’s easier to hold on to your own stereotypes and misconceptions. It makes you feel justified in your own ignorance. That’s America. So the challenge for us is are we ready for change?"

This came from a speech she gave at the University of South Carolina in January, and the stereotype she paints is inaccurate at best. College is not supposed to be about being social butterflies. Sure we have friends and we talk to them, but we are more preoccupied with learning what we should be.

When Michelle Obama makes statements like this, on the stump for her husband, she is fair game. The notion that families are off limits is a fine notion, provided the family stays out of the campaign. Jenna and Barbara Bush did not campaign for their father, but the press had no problem slamming them left and right, and we heard no denouncements from either Al Gore or John Kerry. In 2004, Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter was invoked twice during the presidential and vice presidential debate, and we heard no one condemning either John Kerry or John Edwards for invoking Mary Cheney. She was not campaigning for her father, or President Bush.

Chelsea Clinton was campaigning for her mother, Senator Hillary Clinton. She took a few jabs because she was out in the open. Michelle Obama is out in the open, and actively campaigning for her husband. Why is she off limits?

This is idiotic. The press may play the "hands-off" game, but fair pundits, like ourselves and others will not. We apologize, Senator Obama, but until you stick a sock in your wife's mouth, and take her off the campaign rally tour, she is fair game, and it is open season.

Marcie