Michelle Obama Remarks Stir Controversy

Newsday:

Here's a quote from Michelle Obama, via the Globe and Politico, that seems to have trouble written all over it:

"For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country," she told a Milwaukee crowd today, "because it feels like hope is making a comeback."

A lot of Republicans, and Democrats, and Independents will be surprised to learn that pre-Obama, there was no reason to be proud of America. Probably she didn't mean that. But what did she mean?

Read the whole story: Newsday

Comments

[iPolitics]

The Republicans love our country soooo much especially the conservative. They love it. Lol. Except the poor, middle class, soldiers, supporters of the Bill of Rights, blue and white collar workers.

Republicans: "Can Wall Street and Faux Christians be wrong?"

[dax49]

exactly what is the mc cain barbie doll proud of , water boarding, the destruction of our constitution, the needless death of thousands in a war for the oil companies, her lying ass husband, or her own plastic ass

[PuffAndStuff]

Seriously.

All that you list above + getting a free pass for her drug thieving.

[Susan1968]

After reading a lot of the posts below it's clear Americans fall into two groups...

... some Americans (of every race and ethnic background) see the glass half empty.

... and some Americans (of every race and ethnic background) see the glass half full.

I'm a glass-half-full kind of gal.

I'll tell you about one day I was really proud of America. It was New Year's Eve in New York, only 3 and a half months after 9-11.

And there were record crowds of Americans of every race and ethnic group partying together in Times Square, even though the remains of the Twin Towers still smouldered just blocks away.

For me, that was a proud moment for America.

No politicians, no great leaders, just regular people looking into the camera and, although they were saying, "Happy New Year," it felt like what they were really saying to our enemies was:

"Up yours. We are not afraid of you."

That was a proud moment for me, too bad Michell Obama is a glass-half-empty kind of gal.

[livesimply]

A glass-half-full gal being proud to say "Up yours." Now that's something to be proud of. How about finding Bin Laden and stopping al qaeda instead of stirring them up to produce more?

[Susan1968]

livesimply:

Saying "Up yours," in response to enemies who shout "Death To America," I'd say I was being polite.

Clearly you're a glass-half-empty American.

Thanks for proving my point.

[Myrrhis]

I'm white, and my husband isn't running for president and I know what she means.

The Nixon presidency is my first political memory and it is accompanied by a sense of shame. Then Ford, who let Nixon off, and Carter, well meaning and sincere but not effective, then Reagan (bleah, Alzheimers or a liar, or both!), Bush 1, (bleah, Reagan lite), Clinton (had promise, did a few things, then started playing politics) and Bush 2 (OMG bleah).

I have heard both of my parents speak of presidents whose lives inspired them, but none of those presidents were alive in my lifetime. If we cannot be proud of the US's leadership what do we have to be proud of?

Well, we sure have raked around the cash. Not in, mind you, but around, as we look at even larger gaps between the wealthy and the rest of us. We managed not to deal with human rights issues at home and abroad. Erm . . . we've avoided many ecological issues. OH! We've acted in such a way that we have lost the esteem of much of the world community.

Not a lot to be proud of, to date. If people see a chance to amend some of these wrongs as something to be proud of, I'm right there with them.

[researcher]

good point. not much to be proud of for many years in america. oh there was vietnam now that made me proud. killed over a million vietnamese with a war based on lies and deceptions.

then we have the iraq war based on lies and deceptions.

bet the germans were proud of their country from 1939 to 1945.

michelle needs to address this or it will fester.

do i stand up when they sing proud to be an american. no i think of those 1 million vietnamese that we never asked forgiveness from their relatives for our war mongering for profits.

we are war mongers pure and simple. she needs to watch those words very carefully if she wants her hubby to be pres.

americans are shameful to be proud. hold our heads in shame for being war mongers.

most of the world considers us to be the worst threat to world peace. we let our nationalism get in the way of rational thought.

[PuffAndStuff]

I'm far more interested in discussing what Cindy-stepford-wife-McMain said subsequent to this statement from Michelle Obama.

Is Cindy drug-addled again? ... fell off the wagon and back on 'the junk'? ... I wonder if the government going easy on her for her drug theiving convictions made her 'proud of her country"?

You have to admit it's a bit funny, isn't it -- most GOP candidate campaigns would be planning to go after Obama for his admission to experimenting to drugs in his youth. But considering the only drug-addict in this mix is Cindy McCain, something tells me that McCain campaign isn't going to be touching the Obama drug topic/issue.

[ljsfolly]

I can understand where Michelle is coming from as the country has been divided even when the clintons were in the white house. Were we proud when clintons underwear was disclosed and he was impeached? Have you been proud of the Bush 1 & 2 years? this is recent history. As for being black and considered truly equal has that happened really? On the surface and in the "politically right" maybe, but in reality I think not. It has changed in that a black man is running for the white house and is winning at this point is enough for the black citizens to be considered a miracle to them. Who really thought said that Barack Obama would make it as far as he has? Most thought Hillary had the job and have been shocked by the way things have gone. I can see how she can see there is hope as the thought process oof this country maybe even elceting a black man by a black woman would mean hope to her and pride.

[CanSoc]

So far Mrs Obama is beginning to sound like the Democratic answer to Betty Ford, only worse in terms of being a potential embarassment to her husband. If this keeps up, her remarks will likely become the McCain campaign's secret weapon.

[research]

Kennedy murdered by the right, then King, then the Vietnam invasion, then Nixon and J Edgar's war on hippies and liberals who smoke pot, FBI spying and infiltration, Watergate, Cambodia, the betrayal of Carter and our country by the rethugs, Raygun steels the election by giving Iran weapons to release the hostages late, record deficits, Almost stops Gorbachev from dismantling the USSR with his aggressive posturing, Bushes Iraq war, The rethugs betray the country again and relentlessly undermine Clinton presidency, then King George the Mad lets 9/11 happen while Condi is buying shoes, and invades Iraq to drive up the price of oil.

Maybe none of that stuff makes her proud.

And being black, she could only HOPE that she would share equal rights with the rest of the people in the USA.

I can see her point of view.

[Alessan]

Michelle Obama was born in 1964, the end of the baby boom era. She knows nothing about Kennedy, MLK and the Vietnam War, except what she has read about in her Social Studies classes. Let's not get carried away. She simply meant seeing so many white people adore
her husband and he hasn't even achieved anything, and the adoration is just based the fact that the only thing he conveys to the public is hope and change, I guess that translates to "we hope for change." Because
Obamas says this doesn't mean it will happen or even begin to happen, people now believe because the white man could not bring an end to the problems in this country, maybe a black man might, enough reason for them to vote for Obama, because the Bush administration has been so horrible. Well, they are wrong, this man won't change a thing in the next four years,in fact he may make things worse.

[research]

I'm sure Michelle grew up with her family making sure she knew all about Kennedy, MLK and the Vietnam war.

My candidate is Kucinich, but you obviously haven't bothered to examine Obama's issues. Go to his web site or watch this is a video of Obama being interview by the SF newspaper board.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2008/01/20/EDIAUHASH.DTL&o=0

It is truly ridiculous to suggest "this man won't change a thing in the next four years,in fact he may make things worse."

Who do you think you are helping?

[Mavin1620]

It reads like a poor segue to me.

Instead of talking about this nonsense, discuss the real issues, like funding education (real education, math, history, science, English, languages) like both Clinton and Obama talk about.

[cylindar]

You ask what she means by her statement. Well to clear you up and put some snuff up your nose--She means exactly what she said. Plain enough for you?

[NAMI]

Michelle is too honest for her own good.
many people posting comments here have expressed the same feeling as Michelle.
ALSO she did say REALLY PROUD.....SO IT MEANS SHE HAS BEEN PROUD AT TIMES , BUT NOT REALLY PROUD before this campaign.
let us be honest at least.

[johnnyjust]

Her words stand. As an adult, Michelle Obama has not found anything in the history of this country to feel proud about. She wasn't saying she couldn't find it in the 70's or 80's or 90's. In the history of the country.

You say she was speaking of the elusive "hope," and now that we have Barry there's hope and she's found her pride. Pride in your country doesn't come from politicians. It's knowing that, even in the charge of fallible man, this country remains the greatest in the history of the Earth. Look around if you've lost your hope. You'll find it on the face of every illegal Mexican scaling the fence or every Asian immigrant too busy working and getting ahead to worry about how hopeless it is here. You'll see it on the face of every Cuban in the middle of the ocean on a piece of wood trying desperately to make it to our shores.

There's no lack of hope or pride in this country. There's just a lack of vision. Open your eyes.

[Johnbo]

You'll see in the eyes of every neo-CON shinning bright with the fanticies of the next unilateral, pre-emptive invasion, you'll see it on the face of every U.S. CEO contemplating the possiblility of a golden parachute as the company he/she ran into the ground crashed while he/she sold shares or shorted the market, you'll hear it in the laughable hyperbole as the Shrub reads the latest speech typed into the teleprompter by his handlers about the glories of "democracy" while they work behind the scenes to steal another election.

[youthrewaspark]

As you write us another national anthem, please don't forget to get god in there somewhere. I love this country too, don't get me wrong, but given that I haven't had the experience of living in every other country on the face of the earth, throughout the long duration of human history, I'll have to reserve my own judgment on that part. To each his own.

[GeoLee]

MIchelle ought to be proud of a country where her husband can go on stage and interrupt the previous speaker Clinton, who was given 5 minutes to give her after the vote speech and McCain 10 minutes to give his "I won tonight speech" and still be center stage on CNN and MSNBC and FOX news network for giving his entire campaign speech. In fact, she should be proud of the fact that scenerio has been repeated so many times after so many state's votes recently, that clearly the unfair treatment of yesteryears candidates for many levels of campaigns are being made up for during this campaign to benefit her husband. Actually I think that is more behind her pride then we all want to think. Seh should be proud of how well he has been able to manipulate such tv time. Once the real race begins, the fairness doctrine may limit his airtime to equal his opponents.

[TakLoufer]

Hillary had Bill's big mouth to contend with and now Barack has this bitch to deal with. Shut your yap, Michelle. This is exactly what happened four years ago when Kerry's frau opened her stupid mouth at the convention and acted like she was the one getting the nomination.

The best thing about McCain's eventual win will be that all the liberals will have to flee to Canada as previously promised. Take the Obamas with you, losers.

[MrJoyboy]

Why are you Republicans all such woman haters? You can't make it any more obvious. Is that why you do the tap dances in men's rooms?

[TERRYKEITH4]

LMAO! Sad, but I think it's true.

[llmitchellb]

Why is the "plagerism" story the story of the day? Shouldn't it be what Michele Obama said? I'm split on Obama and Clinton...but I know that Karl Rove is lurking somewhere and glad it's ignored...It will be great fodder in the general election.
It was a screw up and Michele Obama better fix it now.

[ruthj]

Oh boy, the Republicans can hardly wait for Obama to get the nomination. He's getting a free ride now, but wait until the convention party is over! I think it's so strange that everyone's for change--but what exactly does that mean? Don't give Americans any facts, just promises. Americans are such suckers! They deserve the presidents they get. I doubt if I will be casting a vote for him in 08 even though I have been a Dem. my entire life. I probably won't be voting for the first time in my life.

[TERRYKEITH4]

The republicans don't want Obama to win, because they know they can beat Hillary.

[TERRYKEITH4]

Fix what. Or are you just blubbering neocon rhetoric?