Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Michelle Obama: "Don't Go Into Corporate America"
The Corner at NRO ^ | 29 February 2008 | Byron York

Posted on 02/29/2008 7:54:58 AM PST by SE Mom

I have a new story today about Michelle Obama's visit to Zanesville, Ohio, where she met with a group of women at a local day care center. According to the U.S. Census, Muskingum County, where Zanesville is located, had a median household income of $37,192 in 2004, below both the Ohio and national averages. Just 12.2 percent of adults in the county have a bachelor's degree or higher, also well below the state and national averages. About 20 percent don't have a high school degree. Nevertheless, Mrs. Obama urged them to foreswear lucrative professions like corporate law or hedge fund management and go into the helping industry, even if the sacrifice is great:

-As she has many times in the past, Mrs. Obama complains about the lasting burden of student loans dating from her days at Princeton and Harvard Law School. She talks about people who end up taking years and years, until middle age, to pay off their debts. “The salaries don’t keep up with the cost of paying off the debt, so you’re in your 40s, still paying off your debt at a time when you have to save for your kids,” she says.

“Barack and I were in that position,” she continues. “The only reason we’re not in that position is that Barack wrote two best-selling books… It was like Jack and his magic beans. But up until a few years ago, we were struggling to figure out how we would save for our kids.” A former attorney with the white-shoe Chicago firm of Sidley & Austin, Obama explains that she and her husband made the choice to give up lucrative jobs in favor of community service. “We left corporate America, which is a lot of what we’re asking young people to do,” she tells the women. “Don’t go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we’re encouraging our young people to do that. But if you make that choice, as we did, to move out of the money-making industry into the helping industry, then your salaries respond.” Faced with that reality, she adds, “many of our bright stars are going into corporate law or hedge-fund management.”

What she doesn’t mention is that the helping industry has treated her pretty well. In 2006, the Chicago Tribune reported that Mrs. Obama’s compensation at the University of Chicago Hospital, where she is a vice president for community affairs, jumped from $121,910 in 2004, just before her husband was elected to the Senate, to $316,962 in 2005, just after he took office. And that does not count the money Mrs. Obama receives from serving on corporate boards. She would have been O.K. even without Jack’s magic beans.

Mrs. Obama also bemoaned the amount of money she has to spend — nearly one-third of the median household income in Zanesville — on piano, dance, and other lessons for her two children. But she was grateful for the concern her husband's supporters have shown for her. "Everywhere I go, no matter what, the women in the audience, their first question for me is, 'How on earth are you managing it, how are you keeping it all together?'" she told the women.

02/29 08:19 AM


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: 666; byronyork; chicago; michelleobama; obama; theblackhillary
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120 ... 181-190 next last
To: KoRn
The entire Obama movement is just one giant drum circle. lol

Actually, I'd call it another kind of circle, but that would be in bad, bad, taste...lol.

Seriously, the Obama's have sacrificed nothing for this country. Obama may actually believe in some of the crap that spews from his mouth, but if these life choices hadn't benefited the Obama's directly financially, they wouldn't be making these life choices.

Altruism and opportunism meet in one nice, tidy package for the Obama's.
81 posted on 02/29/2008 8:26:07 AM PST by khnyny (Quid Est Veritas)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 75 | View Replies]

To: SE Mom

This is a dangerous couple, folks!


82 posted on 02/29/2008 8:26:08 AM PST by sappy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sappy

That’s the conclusion I’ve reached, as well. Far more dangerous than John and Elizabeth or John and Teresa.


83 posted on 02/29/2008 8:27:49 AM PST by SE Mom (Proud mom of an Iraq war combat vet)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 82 | View Replies]

To: SE Mom

She makes Teresa look lovable.


84 posted on 02/29/2008 8:29:59 AM PST by angcat (Indian name "She who yells too much")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 83 | View Replies]

To: SE Mom
"Sho nuff, ladies....go into the helpin' field......motel room housekeeper, Holiday Inn cook, lady shoe shiner, gubmint clerk, airport luggage searcher, MacDonald's order-taker.....and by all means, don't go into Corporate America unless you're the night shift mop pusher.

(.....pssst, don't look now but this is how we we keep y'all down on the plantation)"

Leni

85 posted on 02/29/2008 8:30:24 AM PST by MinuteGal (FRed and Mitt are Still My Guys)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: frogjerk

I find it bizarre that she’s bitching about student loans...it isn’t like you don’t know going into them that you’re going to have to pay them back but you do it anyway because of the chance at rewards...such as tripling your salary in one year and sitting on corporate boards.

Hillary whines about how it isn’t a level playing field (she should know from only being where she is because of her husband) and now Michelle is complaining about a system that has enriched her. What a mess these candidates are!!!!


86 posted on 02/29/2008 8:33:03 AM PST by Aria (NO RAPIST ENABLER FOR PRESIDENT!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: GVnana

Not just that, but people tend to forget that by maximizing one’s earning potential they maximize the amount they can give to charity.

A friend of mine is very Christian and very smart, asked me how she could reconcile going from her charity job to a big financial services firm for a 60k a year raise. I reminded her that the firm she was going to had charitable matching, and that they would rather get 10k a year from her and replace her than have her work there another 5 years.


87 posted on 02/29/2008 8:34:10 AM PST by oldleft
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: khnyny

If he ends up winning the election in November, I’m waiting to see where they send their daughters for school. More than likely, it will be a private school. Typical hypocritical behavior.


88 posted on 02/29/2008 8:35:09 AM PST by mass55th
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]

To: mylife

“I am beginning to loathe this woman.”

Michelle Obama is a post-civil rights era liberal with a major “black woman” chip on her shoulder. She doesn’t have a clue about REAL discrimination.

Michelle’s always whining about her college loans, but she didn’t HAVE to go to high-priced ivy league schools. She made the choices, now she’s whining about the consequences.

I chose to go to an affordable public university, put myself through school through scholarships and waitressing. I graduated with no debt and $2000 in my pocket. I’ve been making six figures for almost a decade now, and I didn’t need an ivy league school to get there.

I hope Michelle keeps putting her foot in her mouth. She’s obnoxious and she’s not helping her husband at all.


89 posted on 02/29/2008 8:35:46 AM PST by RooRoobird20 (Thankfully Converted Catholic)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: mass55th

Yep. That’s what the Clinton’s did with Chelsea.

Obama’s = Clinton’s. There’s very little difference.

Like I said on another thread - Barack Obama does Bill Clinton better than Bill Clinton.


90 posted on 02/29/2008 8:39:16 AM PST by khnyny (Quid Est Veritas)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 88 | View Replies]

To: SE Mom

Why are women in the Rodent Party so full of hate? Wow! This one has gone over the edge. It must be tough being filthy rich.


91 posted on 02/29/2008 8:40:13 AM PST by FlingWingFlyer (In November, we're going to be able to elect politicians who say they can change the weather. YAY!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RooRoobird20

Vice Pres for Community Affairs of the Hospital -

Sounds like one of those Jesse Jackson shakedown jobs, where she collects a hefty blackmail salary and uses the position to agitate.

The Obamas have won the Dem nod and they MUST be defeated.


92 posted on 02/29/2008 8:40:20 AM PST by rbmillerjr ("bigger government means constricting freedom"....................RWR)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 89 | View Replies]

To: SE Mom

Michelle need not worry, it’s a non-issue.

If Michelle is elected co-president, the coporations would be driven from our shores with tax policy.


93 posted on 02/29/2008 8:40:31 AM PST by listenhillary (Barack Hussein Obama is a left handed Muslim. Think about it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Vigilanteman

I tell my son to find a career where you make money if the factory leaves America or comes to America. Globalism and free trade will destroy sense of country and reduce workers to the status of commodity like raw materials, and finished products which flow in and out of borders (which will disappear over time).


94 posted on 02/29/2008 8:40:39 AM PST by Fee
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: SE Mom

New Barrack theme song:

(To the tune of “Candyman”.)

Who can take a sunrise
Sprinkle it in dew
Cover it in chocolate
and a miracle or two?

The Obamaman
The Obamaman can
The Obamaman can cause he mixes it with love and makes manure taste good

Who can take a rainbow
Wrap it is a sigh
Soak it in the sun
and make a strawberry lemon pie?

Children: The Obamaman?

The Obamaman
The Obamaman can
The Obamaman can cause he mixes it with love and makes manure taste good

Obamaman makes
Everything he bakes
Satisfying and delicious
Talk about your childhood wishes
You can even eat the dishes

Who can take tomorrow
Dip it in a dream
Seperate the sorrow
And collect up all the cream?

Obamaman

Adult Children:Obamaman can!

(There is an audio of this, but I haven’t been able to locate it.)


95 posted on 02/29/2008 8:40:47 AM PST by Islander7 ("Show me an honest politician and I will show you a case of mistaken identity.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Islander7

LOL. Now that’s funny.


96 posted on 02/29/2008 8:42:31 AM PST by khnyny (Quid Est Veritas)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 95 | View Replies]

To: listenhillary

Except her hubby has said he wants to CHANGE all that...just how and by what methods, I’ve yet to understand.


97 posted on 02/29/2008 8:42:37 AM PST by SE Mom (Proud mom of an Iraq war combat vet)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 93 | View Replies]

To: Parmenio

“She makes Teresa Heinz Kerry seem almost normal.”

I was going to say this sounds like the black version of Terry Kerry.

Another limousine liberal without a clue.


98 posted on 02/29/2008 8:43:28 AM PST by headstamp 2 (Been here before)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Islander7

ROFL! :)


99 posted on 02/29/2008 8:43:30 AM PST by SE Mom (Proud mom of an Iraq war combat vet)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 95 | View Replies]

To: RooRoobird20

What is bad is even if she loses the co-presidency, she will be looked to as an EXPERT! on American foreign policy and domestic policy by the media.

The media will be contantly checking in and seeing what Michelle thinks. That is if she doesn’t get a Oprah clone show on the Tele.


100 posted on 02/29/2008 8:43:41 AM PST by listenhillary (Barack Hussein Obama is a left handed Muslim. Think about it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 89 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120 ... 181-190 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson