Posted on 04/27/2018 1:30:59 PM PDT by Kaslin
This has been the fortnight of the first ladies. Last week, the focus was on two former first ladies, one through mourning and fond admiring recollections, and one through yet another book of scathing analytical criticism. Barbara Bush was celebrated for her blunt dignity. Hillary Clinton was recalled for her campaign of blunt excuses for her own failures.
In death, Bush was praised as an old-fashioned matriarch speaking her mind with a sharp tongue, loved by family and lauded as the wife of one president and the mother of another. In life, Clinton has never been at home in the role of "wife of," and she took pride in not being the kind of wife and mother who stayed home and baked cookies. She yearned for an Oval Office of her own and blames everyone but herself for not getting there.
"They were never going to let me be president," Amy Chozick quoted Clinton as saying in "Chasing Hillary," a biography on her coverage of the 2016 Clinton campaign for The New York Times. "They," Chozick reports, included the "vast right-wing conspiracy," piggy forms of patriarchy, Wisconsin voters, former FBI Director James Comey and "white suburban women who would rather vote for a man who bragged about sexual assault than a woman who seemed an affront to who they were." The former first lady includes all the political reporters left and right with "big egos and no brains" who hounded her with questions about her emails.
It's not fair, perhaps, to make first ladies public figures, a role in nearly all cases they did not choose and was thrust upon them whether they liked it or not by virtue of the man they married. The exception is Clinton who, always ambitious for political power, set out to use the role as a stepping stone to the U.S. Senate, secretary of state and, ultimately, the Oval Office.
From Martha Washington onward, the ladies adapted to marriage with a president by living out promises spoken in their marriage vows, for better and for worse suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, but enjoying the perks, pomp and prestige. This is the gilt by association that comes with marriage to the most powerful man in the world.
Melania Trump is still a work in progress as first lady, a beautiful model who enjoyed the sophisticated social life of New York society and came to Washington untutored and unprepared for the rough-hewn politics that follow all presidents to the White House. It was not an easy journey from her "golden fortress" in Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue to the demands of the mistress of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
On election night, when Donald Trump was declared winner, she had to have felt like Rachel Jackson, wife of Andrew Jackson, who, upon hearing that her husband had won the presidency, said she was pleased for him but "never wished it" for herself.
Rachel Jackson died before her husband was sworn in. Melania Trump could only delay her arrival to the White House for a few months, so as not to interrupt the school year of her son, Barron Trump, in New York. When she finally arrived, she was criticized for doing too little too late and then mercilessly mocked or publicly pitied as scandals of "other women" in her husband's past blossomed on the front pages.
More media attention has been paid to whether she allows the president to hold her hand than anything she has to say. This week, she not only held her husband's hand on the steps of the White House as they welcomed President Emmanuel Macron of France and his wife, Brigitte Macron, and then escorted them to their first state dinner; she was widely praised for her mastery of the details of the dinner, from the glittering gold plates and candelabras, to the pink cherry blossoms in tall black urns.
Nobody minded that she was gorgeous in a black Chantilly lace Chanel haute couture gown hand-painted with silver and embroidered with crystals and sequins, wearing it like the model she was trained to be. She might have been wounded by stray verbal shrapnel from ammunition aimed at her husband, but at dinner she stood above the gossipy fray, a hostess drawing on her own charm, skill and confidence.
"A man marries a woman, not a first lady," John F. Kennedy once said of his elegant wife, Jackie Kennedy. "She must fit her own personality into her own concept of a first lady's role." Or, to echo a famous exhortation directed at critics of a previous president many of us can remember, "It's time to let Melania be Melania."
I wondered if Barron attended the Statedinner or if he got to view the glitter from his hiding place on the stairs
Very good....if you don't mind, I'll follow your lead. Only I refuse to capitalize her first name. I haven't done so since she enabled her husband's horrific WH behavior.
No problem. Go right ahead. If I use is as keywords they come out as lower keys anyway.
How can you do that? *shudder*
I agree.
The most important thing she brings to the table is a positive attitude and the realization that she doesn’t need to be puffed up and demanding. She will get what she wants by acting like a very nice human being. People will flock to her and bend over backwards to be helpful.
She is building here legacy by being the ultimate example of selflessness. Statues will follow. Memorials will follow. Schools and institutes being named will follow. What’s more, she will deserve it.
She does not see herself as co-president. She won’t be rude and insulting to the White House staff. She will not train her son to grow up to hate the military. She won’t order people around angrily. She is setting an example not only for Barron, but for the nation.
She cares for the nation in much the same way she cares for Barron.
For the time being, she is the mother of the nation.
Leading by example, she will encourage us all to be our best selves.
* * * * *
I am once again reflecting on the reality that she could have every right to be angry right now. You don’t see it.
It’s not important to her that she be seen winning the upper hand in a marital spat. She realizes her role right now is too important to waste energy on that sort of thing.
She wont trash the Donald in public. She won’t address the situation. She is not just standing by her man, whether she really is or not (we don’t know), but she is steadfastly standing by the nation.
She realizes we need a strong positive steady hand from our First Lady. She realizes that with his faults, our president needs her to be supportive. No, I don’t gift him a free pass, so this is about priorities for the nation.
She has her head glued on straight. She has been perfect to this point. I suspect I’ll be saying the same think in late January 2021.
* * * * *
I would like to take a moment to mention this. Models take a pretty tough hit when it comes to intelligence and moral character.
If there’s anyone who could have done a better job than Melania is doing right now, I don’t know who they might be.
We may want to rethink our views of people in some professions.
You might be too young to remember “let Reagan be Reagan”. Deep state was a thing back then too.
Vicious degenerate scum leftist media do everything they can to blacken the reputation and Trump and Melania.
For Moochelle: pandering, butt-kissing, soft questions in adoring ingerviews for extremely favorable puff pieces.
For Melania: anything they can do to hurt her, despite being innocent.
Take names, friends.
She has a Renoir on the wall. Not my taste, but impressive all the same. Good thing they will have SS protection for the rest of their lives.
Thanks! Reagan was the first President I voted for. But those were my college years, so I wasn’t reading the papers or watching the news.
From the interwebs:
In 1982 and ’83, in the Reagan White House, the more politically minded Manafort side was represented by Chief of Staff James Baker. Meanwhile, National Security Adviser William P. Clark was the Lewandowski of the situation, whose approach was at the time summed up with four simple words: “let Reagan be Reagan.” In general, “being Reagan” meant adherence to the President’s harder-line “raw, conservative instincts,” as TIME put it.
“its good to be the potus...”
Especially when you are President Donald Trump.
HUBBAH HUBBAH!
Originated as ‘Let Nixon be Nixon’.
Barron comes first for the next six years no matter what. Very refreshing to see and a great example!
Okay - who can we rule out the saying to apply to?
“Let Clinton be Clinton!” Arkancides and rapes increase in D.C.
“Let obama be obama!” Wednesday is gay orgy night at the White House.
“Let Hillary be Hillary”
Actually, after hearing some of the Nixon tapes, I'm guessing that it probably wouldn't have been a good idea to have the private views of Nixon on display in public. While he was probably correct in a lot of his views - he could be pretty coarse.
Yes, I’d have to agree with that. As matters pertain to him.
Adult matters, the nations comes first.
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