She has a slightly tin-ear for politics, but I really like Michelle Obama. I don’t expect her to get a free ride in the campaign but I think efforts to demonize her will ultimately be helpful to the Obama campaign. She simply isn’t unlikeable. And no one likes someone that picks on a nice lady.
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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On Hillary’s 1968 reference….What about the point she was supposedly making? It’s true that nomination contests sometimes go into the Summer, whether you cite 1968 or the somewhat more analogous examples of 1980 or 1984.
Hey Hillary, how did the general election go for the eventual Dem candidates, each of those years?
Just askin’.
I actually like Michelle quite a lot. I think she will be a great First Lady and will discover her niche once she is there. I like that she is a no nonsense type of person. God knows we need something different in the White House on all levels.
Agree 1000%
AP on the people who make up the Obama political team who out-organized Clinton
amen
it’s unfortunate the article didn’t mention this guy, jeffrey berman, obama’s dir. of delegate selection. his contributions as a key strategist re: the primary campaign, is a major factor in the success they’ve had.
hillary’s run a late 20th century campaign, obama has ushered in a new political era, closely attuned to the realities of the 21st.
picture’s worth a 1000 words
Berman is a brilliant man. ALL in all around a very smart team
Thanks for sharing this. Berman is a baaad you know what. LOL!!!
Part of her appeal is that she doesn’t talk like a typical politician. I hate the analogy of a ‘tin ear’ because in music, that’s a negative. In politics, it can be a big positive to those like me who are frustrated by the canned nature of most statements.
I wouldn’t underestimate her. Anyone that worked for Mayor Daley is an operator.
I have to comment on the RFK reference, too. At first I was prepared to accept Clinton’s (awkward and self-righteous) explanation, because I really don’t want to think that a leading Dem pol could actually go there.
But having slept on it I’m more sure than yesterday that the assassination reference is exactly what she’s been driving at. The fact that she made similar comments several times, going back to March, makes her intention clear. If she wanted to make the point that nomination contests sometimes go into the Summer, there are so many better examples: Carter/Kennedy in 1980, Mondale/Hart in 1984. 1968 is an especially poor choice to make an historical analogy for an extended nomination, not just because of the compressed primary schedule that has been noted, but because LBJ’s withdrawl in late March threw the whole process into a tizzy.
The repeated 1968 references make no sense…..except as a reminder of the assassination of a young, charismatic candidate who promised fundamental change. Tragically, the manner of his death is what RFK is today most famous for. And that’s the subtext to any citation of his ’68 campaign, whether you come out and use the “A” word or avoid it (as Clinton did in several earlier reference.)
To deny Clinton was aware of the underlying message conveyed by the repeated RFK references underestimates her intelligence and knowledge of politics and history.
And the fact that she never apologized to Obama for it also shows a certain deliberateness, in my opinion.
I slept on this, hoping I was being swept up by emotion and that I was possibly wrong. But, I still can’t see anything other than selfish motivation for the repeated comments about the assassination of RFK. Senator Clinton is a Yale lawyer, once chosen as one of the top 100 lawyers in the nation. The most powerful tool at the disposal of a good lawyer is words, and all words spoken before a jury (or a nation of voters) are spoken with purpose. A lawyer with a weak case can turn a jury in her favor by choosing the right words in a final summation. Here we have a candidate with a weak case for continuing, using an emotionally-charged word over and over in an effort to turn the voters. I refuse to believe she isn’t using the word purposely, regardless of her intent.
So many ways to say it without bringing up assassination:
“I’m staying in until the last primary in June.”
Or:
“I’m staying in until one of us has the majority.”
Or:
“I’m staying in until I’m dragged off the convention floor.”
Whatever, and let no Clinton supporter claim she never meant Obama because he’s the only one whose mortality prevents her nomination, Clinton’s continued invocation of RFK’s assassination is at least ghoulish, her explanation is false and her apology was to the wrong people, and should cause any Clinton backer reconsider their candidate’s morality.
By the way, I realize that RFK Jr. is treading a narrow path here, but he’s either not as smart as I thought, not as politically savvy, or not as moral as I thought. He should note that part of Hillary’s apology should have gone to Obama and his family, and I hope in private he’s told her as much.
following your lead
– I am staying until we have a nominee, it is not time bound, and it doesn’t mean that she can’t suspend at any time.
Nobody but her knows what she said what she said, and most importantly why she didn’t realize how damaging it will be when (no if) when such loaded comments got air time in the MSM,
I am particularly concerned that her AA supporters either never heard (that shows disconnect) the comments before or didn’t make enough of an argument internally (that shows lack of influence), you know the fact that connecting the tragedy of RFK with a charismatic AA leader could play very badly within a community that had seem many or their leaders gun down and since BHO started running is worried sick of a repeat.
She’s not a Stepford Wife like Laura Bush, Nancy Reagan, or a couple of the Hillary Clintons we were treated to. I find her refreshing in a similar way to Teresa Heinz Kerry, but more so, since I can understand what she’s saying all of the time instead of just most of it.
Attacking Michelle, as we saw with the Tennessee GOP, also gives Barack Obama the opportunity to defend his wife, thus handing him a positive on a silver platter.
I saw Teresa Heinz Kerry as a liability to her husband’s campaign simply because of her family wealth, but I liked her as a person. Cindy McCain is going to have similar problems. I don’t know if she’s a nice person, but she looks like a Botox-Barbie robot and she’s already been tagged as a drug addict and a “Sugar Momma” without a peep in her defense from her loving husband, who is on record calling her (the c-word.)
Michelle Obama is a really smart, nice lady who we can all feel really proud of because of her modest upbringing and her success – against the odds – as a successful lawyer and mother. She’s a much better role model for our daughters than – say – Hillary Clinton. And when the right-wing “family values” crowd inevitably attacks her, it will backfire BADLY and they will regret it.
Michelle’s unvarnished strength is contagious when she speaks. It’s actually fun seeing how she & Barack negotiate with each other; ie, one of the conditions of his running was to stop smoking. And there’s been a couple of times when ‘the closer’ wason the stage that I was more interested in listening to her than Barack.
FYI that my diary was picked up and republished under a better title (supplied by Robert Parry), “Hillary’s Shark-Jumping Moment” at ConsortiumNews.com.
Very good, Lisa. I linked to it from my blog.
I just stumbled across this and had to share, from SAIGONBOB, re the Puerto Rico primary:
NWS Norman, Oklahoma – Enhanced Weather Page
Springtime in Oklahoma. Multiple tornadoes on the ground NW of OKC. The local TV stations have storm chasers all over them. Channel 9’s helicopter is playing tag with the wall cloud.
Here on the California coast there’s a big fire to the south of us in the Santa Cruz mountains. It’s been a really dry spring and we had lots of wind last week which dried things even further. Last night and this morning we had some rain here (.10 inch), the first in months it seems, but I’m not sure if any cells got far enough south to help out. In any case, there may be more rain tonight, but it might come in thunderstorms.
Anyway, at least the rain we got will keep down the fire danger in Pacifica for a few months.
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Re. the “A”-word. Surely, following Obama’s example, we should move on. But before I do that, a little wit to defuse the situation.
Excellent point!
It will be interesting to see if women who were complaining about how Hillary was treated will support Michelle.
I talked to more than a few women and they loved it that Obama spoke up in her defense but I also want her to fire back.
Michelle is a huge advantage.
Think professional soccer mom, or any mom struggling to manage their day. kid, schedule and challenges. Who will they identify with? Cindy McCain’s platinum appearance and gifted wealth or Michelle who visibly is in partnership with her husband in winning the White House while providing a rich yet normal childhood for their young daughters.
If people vote for people who share their values, the Michelle trumps Cindy thrice over, especially when it becomes better known how John treats Cindy vs Obama and Michelle.
Cindy seems as if she would only be at ease at chamber of commerce country club fund raiser while Michelle looks as if she would be at ease at a PTA art show while waiting for a call to say he other daughter’s softball game is over.
I’m sure Michelle wouldn’t have an aide steal recipes from the Food Network to pass off as “family recipes” on Obama’s page like Cindy did.
The spouse had a bit of fun with Photoshop earlier today (after reading a funny comment about Hillary).
I love it!!! Much nicer than the one I was working on and then decided to erase. I was being really bad. LOL