If Obama had any chance at all of winning, this wife of his will be the killer. Could she be anymore the polar opposite of Obama's likability factor?

Wow! So her six figure salary more than doubled in one year! I guess she got a really good annual review; probably "Exceded Expectations". But for the rest of us, we should stay away from corporate America and learn to be happy with less. I get it..."Do as I say, not as I do..."

Michelle Obama should start toning it down for her husband's sake. I have not heard anything inspirational or worthwhile from her, just tired old grievances and bitterness.

It is absolutely pitiful to see critics take Michelle Obama's words and twist them into something she obviously did not mean - to cast them in the worst possible light rather than applaud her for encouraging young people to live lives of service. Anyone who thinks being the spouse of a politician in this country is a walk in the park hasn't been paying attention - people rip you apart, you are always under the threat of physical harm and danger to your family, and best of all, you get to make impossible decisions that take into account what is best for everyone in a country of more than 300 million people, each of whom has their own political agenda.

The call for public service has been part and parcel of Obama's campaign from the beginning. Too many young people today have an enormous sense of entitlement, they believe a college degree means they deserve a high five or six figure salary, right out of the chute. They believe their first apartment should have nice furnishings, a computer with high speed internet and a cell phone with unlimited calling and text messaging. Our national addiciton to credit is fueled in large part by this insistence that we must have the best and the newest, whether or not we can afford it.

I don't see anything wrong with someone in a leadership position encouraging young people - all people - to at least consider giving their lives to public service, whether it is to run for political office, to serve in the helping professions or simply to devote themselves to creating a better America.

The danger of Obama's message of hope isn't that his are empty words. He clearly understands the concept of leading a life of service and the value of service to our country. The danger is that when it comes time for Americans to step up to the plate, too many will decide he's the one who should be doing all the work.

If everyone sought to be helpers and teachers then society's progress would be halted. Michelle shouldn't be attacking corporate America because that is where the funding comes from to pay her lofty salary. If you attack the free market then you doom its citizens to lower standards of living. Social workers and teachers are important and help provide disadvantaged Americans with basic needs but it is also important not to discourage people from trying to take risks and come up with new ideas.

What stands out to me is "don't go into corporate America."

For one, the cards are unevenly stacked in corporate America. Not everyone who heads there will get a fair chance to succeed there even after incurring college debts that run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

For two, corporate America is moving overseas.

For three, America's most profound needs are right here in the areas she discussed-education, medicine, careers that serve the people, not in careers that generate more wealth for the wealthy that does not trickle down to the population.

I say her ideas are provocative and truthful and courageous. They deserve serious consideration.

Talking the talk isn't the same as walking the walk. Making over $300,000 a year isn't community service, Ms. Obama. Barak's net worth alone is $2,500,000. Try living on $25,000 a year and raising a family, then talk to me about sacrificing myself for the better good. It's hard to be a humanitarian when you're homeless.

Why would anyone want to go into "corporate America" when a public hospital system makes a VP "job" *(sic) for you & GIVES you $400,000 for community relations?

Damn, she's a bigger joke than he is.

the life of working mothers is very difficult in a country that makes it very difficult to get affordable childcare, and not everyone has the support of family and friends to help them out. we spend all this time extolling the virtues of teachers and others who are instrumental to society, encouraging more people to pursue such careers, yet we don't reward them in terms of pay and we certainly don't put the amount of money into schools that would allow them to do their jobs effectively. this is one of things i'd most like to see change in the near future.

be afaraid libs , be very afraid... while you can learn nothing from the words of the vacuous one listen to Michelle... She bemoans the money she has to pay for all her kids lessons as compared to the $37,000 median house hold income in Ohio yet because of Barack's election (cue mainly to the pathetic state of the Illiinois Repub party) her compensation increased 2 1/2 times from 137,000 to $316,000 .... almost 10 times the median income in Ohio, but she does bemoan.....She was not taken out of context in her lack of pride in her country until the coming of Barack

This reminds me SO MUCH of '92. A candidate whose main theme is hope and change, with a spouse that the right-wing can't stand, but nobody seems to know why.


There are some pro-Clinton people too who freak me out the way they react to Michelle Obama.

My perception of Michelle Obama is that she is strong, well educated, intelligent and insightful women, whom I am sure cares tremendously about economic, political and social issues that affect women and families -- which is why I found her comments deeply disturbing. Women have fought for decades for access to education to climb out of the low-wage pink collar "ghettoized" professions to the higher paying corporate environment. Now we have Mrs. Obama, a black female attorney who benefited from the legacy of that fight, telling women they should forgo higher paying jobs in favor of low wage, low respect "helping" work? I don't get it. Michelle Obama should rather lobby to increase the salaries of our nations teachers, health care professionals, daycare providers and social service workers AS WELL AS to make higher education financially accessible to everyone so both women and men will find those professions attractive options. Keeping women undereducated and bound to poverty only exacerbates the problems plaguing our nation.

PS: THE FONT SIZE IS STILL TOO SMALL.

Hooray, she has guts. Go Michelle!!!!!

From John Hinderacker at PowerLine:

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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 be only be allowed "on the periphery of society." Still, someone should have told her that her students 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."

* *
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 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 victims -- demanding, whining, self-absorbed, self-pitying, and infantile.

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http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives2/2008/03/019924.php