Posted on 03/01/2008 9:18:45 AM PST by jdm
Now we know why, in her adult life, Michelle Obama has never been proud of America until now. As Byron York reports, her life here is such a struggle. And not because of the demands of the political campaign. As she puts it, "I don't know what I would do, even if we weren't running; I don't know what I would do as a professional without having that kind of support system [provided by her mother who lives nearby]." It is that support system, she confesses, that "keeps me sane."
It's easy to see her point. The Obamas, according to Michelle, spend roughly $10,000 a year just on programs for their kids -- "piano and dance and sports supplements" and "summer programs and so on and so forth." And, having had the audacity to quit "corporate America" the Obamas must do so on Barack's salary and book money, Michelle's salary of $317,000 (up from the $122,000 she made before Barack was elected to the Senate), and whatever she can scrape together from serving on corporate boards (her abandonment of corporate America apparently has not been complete).
But even with everything the Obamas are providing for their kids, there's "a constant sense of guilt." "It's guilt," Michelle emphasizes, "feeling guilty all the time." The guilt, as far as I can tell, stems from having to pass her kids back and forth with Barack: "We do split that day, okay, you've got [the kids], I've got them."
Back at Princeton, apparently, no one told her life would be such a struggle, although she did sense (incorrectly) that after college she might only be allowed "on the periphery of society." Still, someone should have told her that her student loans would leave her trapped inside corporate American, or at least on some of its boards.
Michelle is a tough cookie, though. She's not looking for our sympathy. "Don't cry for me," she tells the strangers in her lower middle class audience in Zanesville, Ohio after explaining just how difficult it is for her to "keep it all together."
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It would be unfair, of course, to blame Barack Obama for the views and outlook of his wife (except to the extent he endorses or defends them). I've seen no evidence that Barack is a complainer. And, nothwithstanding his lack of the experience normally associated with a run at the presidency, Obama's sense of entitlement does not seem significantly to exceed that of your average presidential candidate.
But Michelle Obama is still instructive. She's a depressing speciman of a post-modern class of victim -- demanding, whining, self-absorbed, self-pitying, and infantile.
UPDATE: Given recent developments in the Obama campaign, though, it's possible that Michelle Obama is enormously satisfied with her life and has absolutely no trouble "keeping it all together." At this moment, a white male campaign adviser may be telling a men's club that Michelle's whining is just rhetoric intended to make Barack competitive among Hillary Clinton's female supporters.
e to the power of chump! I’ve never heard that one before.
Someone should grab it for their next all-bum cover.
Michelle says these things so women in the audience at these events think that she’s one of them, that she can relate. This isn’t revolutionary and it isn’t whining. It may be ham-fisted execution, but that’s what she’s feebly trying to do. Voters want to know that their elected officials know what it’s like to be a normal voter. They want to know that their President is aware that analysts project gasoline to hit $4/gallon, to take a recent example.
What a pair are these Obamas.
He, with 24 years of company service, has never made 75% of what Ms. Obama made before her husband was elected to the senate.
And she seems to think that even uttering her husband's middle name amounts to HATE SPEECH!!!
Or to put it simply, a liberal.
Man, that can be taken so many ways on some many levels, I'm not touching it with a 10' ft pole :)
Jeez, what a whiner. She and her husband make half a million dollars a year (before perks and kickbacks). $10,000/yr for the munchkins to learn piano, dance, and soccer, talk about hardship!!
What a happy household this must be. Is home a sanctuary? Does her husband and kids make her life happy and complete? Oh no, it’s her mother that makes things bearable. I’m really cynical of adults who have to run to mommy every time they have problems in life. If your household can’t give you the love, sanctuary, and support that you need, you’ve got big problems and the only person to blame is YOU.
The point here is, it seems to me, that she makes a wheelbarrow load of money, big bucks like most of us would thank our lucky stars to make - and she whines about “how hard a time she has and how things are just hard all over around the Obama house what with her and Barack having to split care of the kids”. This is a privileged woman who could HIRE a full-time cook and bottle washer, making twenty times what the average person brings in and still whining?! False rings false every time.
Hint to the Obama camp: Have Michelle verbally THANK HER LUCKY STARS SHE IS LIVING IN THE MOST PROSPEROUS COUNTRY IN THE WORLD WITH ALL THE PRIVILEGES SHE HAS ENJOYED IN HER LIFE - AND that Barack HOPES to bring to ALL CHILDREN of every color. . . or else keep whining and spreading the misery if they wish. That’s what Democrats are good at.
The Obamas, according to Michelle, spend roughly $10,000 a year just on programs for their kids -- "piano and dance and sports supplements" and "summer programs and so on and so forth." And, having had the audacity to quit "corporate America" the Obamas must do so on Barack's salary and book money, Michelle's salary of $317,000 (up from the $122,000 she made before Barack was elected to the Senate), and whatever she can scrape together from serving on corporate boards (her abandonment of corporate America apparently has not been complete).
I’m with you. I’ve been an aerospace engineer for 8 years. I get to do stuff that I dreamed about as a kid. I have a good life and I don’t make 1/3 of what Michelle “Cry-me-a-river” Obama makes. SHE has made her life miserable, nobody else.
Are you sure you read the same article as me? What line criticises her because "she makes a lot of money"?
What I get out of this is she is an ungreatful, spoiled , upatriotic nutcase with a chip on her shoulder.
Good point.
No, it makes you credible. And that is somthing all of Miss Hussein's cash can't buy for her.
As she puts it, "I don't know what I would do, even if we weren't running
Oh! Great!
Another "two for the price of one" duo......
A "black" shillary.....
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