Chicago roots: Her path has taken her from a working-class family through the Ivy League to a successful career and role as a mother. (Morry Gash/AP/File)
Michelle Obama’s story
In many ways she would make history as first lady.
By Amanda Paulson | Staff writer/ August 25, 2008 edition
Reporter Amanda Paulson discusses Michelle Obama, wife of Sen. Barack Obama and her impact on his presidential campaign.
Reporter Amanda Paulson
Chicago – As she tells it, Michelle Obama’s first reaction when she heard her husband talk about running for president was, “Absolutely not! Please don’t do this!”
She was wary of the nastiness of politics, of the grueling nature of such a campaign, and, above all, of the toll that it all might take on their two young daughters.
But these days, Barack Obama has no bigger cheerleader than his wife, and Ms. Obama has developed into an able, dynamic campaigner. She’ll be speaking at the Democratic National Convention Monday night.
When her husband’s run for the nation’s top office looked to be a reality, “She said, ‘Let’s sit down and think it through analytically,’” remembers Valerie Jarrett, Obama’s close friend and a senior adviser to the campaign. “‘Let’s talk about the downsides and risks, and let’s have a plan for how we’ll manage that.’”
That thorough approach to problems and her all-out commitment once the choice is made are hallmarks of a woman who excelled in her own careers long before gaining the media’s attention as potential first lady.
But while she’s been gaining attention for her accomplishments and poise, she’s also drawn notoriety, serving as a lightning rod for those who see her as angry, abrasive, and didactic. Her now infamous comment last winter, calling Barack’s candidacy the “first time in my adult life that I’ve been really proud of my country,” has drawn particular criticism, even after her subsequent explanations.
“Since she is so public, and so willing to express her views and be blunt, it draws attention,” says Charles Ogletree, Obama’s Harvard Law School professor and an adviser to the campaign. “But I think the more the public gets to know her in more intimate settings, the more they’ll appreciate what an asset she’ll be in the White House.”
In many ways, Michelle Obama’s story is the American dream, a classic tale of a supportive family, a working-class background, and success in school and career.
She grew up on Chicago’s South Side, in a small bungalow where her mother still lives. Her father, Frasier Robinson, was a pump operator for the city and was diagnosed at a young age with multiple sclerosis. Her mother, Marian, stayed home to raise Michelle and her older brother, Craig. Whenever possible, the family ate dinner together.
While both Robinson children were high-achievers, Craig Robinson, now head basketball coach at Oregon State University in Corvallis, says there was never any pressure from his parents.
“The way our family worked, you kind of naturally did the best you could,” he says in a phone interview from Oregon. “I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we saw [our father] get up every day and go to work with an affliction like MS and never complain or feel sorry for himself and always be supportive of what we were doing.”
Obama attended Whitney Young High School, a prestigious magnet school that required a 90-minute commute by public bus every day, and she followed her brother to Princeton University in 1981.
At Princeton, Obama had suddenly entered new cultural territory, and her senior sociology thesis – on “Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community” – reflects some of the questions it raised for her.
“My experience at Princeton has made me far more aware of my ‘Blackness’ than ever before,” she wrote in the introduction, talking about her fears that she would always remain at the periphery of white society, and also her awareness that an Ivy League education had instilled in her many of the same values and goals as her white classmates.
The thesis, for which she surveyed black alumni about their Princeton experience and their subsequent involvement with the black community, hints at an internal struggle over her identity.
But her friends say she was self-assured, interacted well with both white and black students, and had little interest in politics.
“Unlike most college kids looking for themselves, she was not unsure of who she was,” says Angela Acree, her roommate for three years and still one of Obama’s best friends. “She had a really good sense of self.”
Ms. Acree and Obama spent a summer working at a Fresh Air Fund camp for girls in the Catskills. At Princeton, Obama started an after-school program for children of university workers. At Harvard Law School, she worked in a program in which students gave legal services to indigent clients.
It stemmed, in part, from a desire to please her father, believes Professor Ogletree. “She was going to prove to him that she was going to keep her commitment to be like her brother – a college graduate and a professional-school graduate and someone who gave something back to the community,” he says.
Still, when she graduated in 1988, Obama first went to work at a large law firm – Sidley Austin, where she met Barack – when she was assigned to mentor him as a summer associate. She seemed to be on track for a successful corporate law career.
Several years later, she shifted back toward public service, first working for the city of Chicago in the mayor’s office and the planning department, and later running the first Chicago chapter of Public Allies, a nonprofit that encourages young people in public service. Eventually, she took a job at the University of Chicago Hospitals managing community and external affairs, from which she’s currently on leave.
Those who have worked with her describe a woman who is competent and organized, who expects a great deal from both herself and those working for her, and who is able to cut through bureaucracy and quickly find solutions to tough problems. In her job in the planning department, Obama often fielded complaints from the business community.
“Michelle was extraordinary at figuring out what the problem was, how many different departments were involved, and pulling people together,” says Ms. Jarrett, who hired Obama for her first city job, offering her the position on the spot after a 20-minute interview that turned into a 90-minute conversation. “She’s totally analytical, practical, and insightful. Add to that these extraordinary people skills.”
At the University of Chicago Hospitals, she helped smooth the sometimes acrimonious relations between the hospitals and the South Side communities they serve. She started bus tours to introduce new employees – and the board of trustees – to the community, began a program to steer construction projects to local female- and minority-owned businesses, and dealt with crowded emergency rooms by setting up a counseling system that connected people to primary care providers who could offer preventative care.
“She will talk about difficult issues openly, and it’s very disarming, because she is direct,” says Susan Sher, her boss at the Medical Center. “But she’s also kind and approachable, so people are more likely to talk about what’s really going on.” Still, that bluntness has gotten her into trouble on the campaign trail.
Her humor – in particular, her attempt to humanize Barack by pointing out his domestic foibles – doesn’t always translate well, especially in print.
Comments like her one to Glamour magazine that he is “snore-y and stinky” when he gets up in the morning can come across as glib and disrespectful.
Her campaign speeches – in which Obama often focuses on the difficulties facing Americans today, sometimes telling her audience that Barack “will demand” such things as shedding cynicism or engaging in the political process – strike some as overly negative and didactic.
“Almost every time the candidate’s wife speaks extemporaneously she seems to offer some bon mot consistent with that bleak assessment” of America, wrote Mark Steyn in a National Review cover story this spring that dubbed her “Mrs. Grievance.”
An NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll a month ago showed that 31 percent of Americans held a negative view of Obama, compared with 16 percent who hold a negative view of Cindy McCain. (In the same poll, 34 percent expressed a positive opinion of Obama, and 28 percent gave a positive reaction to Mrs. McCain.)
Since the oft-quoted remark about her pride in her country, Obama and others have said she was referring only to the political process. But she has also been more careful and guarded in her comments since then.
Her friends, meanwhile, shake their heads at the “angry black woman” caricatured in right-wing media and blogs, saying it bears no relation to the woman they know. “She’s had a magical life,” says Ms. Acree, who recently traveled with Obama for several days of campaigning. “What does she have to be angry about?”
Ogletree, her former professor, says, “They’ve been focused on trying to create a Michelle Obama who doesn’t exist.”
Jose Rico, the founding principal of the Multicultural Arts High School in Chicago, and a Public Allies fellow under Obama more than a decade ago, is particularly surprised at those who question her patriotism. He notes that at Public Allies, Obama was the one who helped him become less disillusioned with America and showed him the value of taking part in the political process.
Originally an undocumented immigrant who had just received his legal residency, Mr. Rico felt alienated and was set on not becoming a US citizen.
“She was the one who really challenged me to think about that, in terms of the change I wanted to make, and how that would translate not just to my community, but on a broader scale,” remembers Rico, who went on to earn his citizenship and to achieve his dream of starting a high school, in which Obama also encouraged and challenged him.
Rico and others say that although Obama is an exacting boss with high expectations – and is a fairly strict taskmaster at home as well, where her children and husband all know the chores they’re expected to do – she is also warm and cares about the personal lives of friends and colleagues.
Acree remembers when their mutually close friend from Princeton University, Suzanne Alele, was dying of an illness at a young age in 1990. Obama had just begun working at the law firm Sidley Austin and was trying to prove herself; Acree and Alele were both in Washington. “If Suzanne or I picked up the phone and needed or wanted anything, she was here in a heartbeat,” says Acree. “Suzanne’s death was the first time I really got to see the depth of her love for her friends, how loyal she is.”
Her staff also speak highly of her, and say she exhibits great concern for them and their personal lives – not always a trademark of harried political candidates and their families.
While she has alienated some on the right, Obama has also grown into an able campaigner and public speaker, drawing large crowds.
Rather than pushing her to the background, the campaign has tried to give her a fresh introduction to counter the negative image.
Earlier this summer, she hosted a segment of ABC’s “The View,” riffing with Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Whoopi Goldberg about her daughters, her fashion choices, and her decision not to wear pantyhose.
This week, in addition to the speech Monday night, she’ll be holding one of her trademark “roundtable discussions with working women” in Denver and will kick off a service day on Wednesday with the Governor’s wife.
In the roundtable discussions, which she’s held around the country, Obama focuses on the topic that seems closest to her heart: the challenges facing working mothers.
“There isn’t a moment that goes by that I’m not thinking about my little girls,” she told a packed audience in Pontiac, Mich., at one of these discussions. “The role I hold most dear is being mom.”
Despite the unavoidable craziness of a presidential campaign, Obama has made a monumental effort to minimize the disruptions to Malia and Sasha, scaling back her own campaigning when she can and taking as few overnight trips as possible.
Saturdays – when she and the girls engage in a weekly ritual involving ballet, tennis or soccer, McDonald’s, and a movie – are sacred.
“Above all else, she is a great parent,” says her brother. “Family comes first to her. It comes first naturally, and honestly.”
Talking about parenting – and about the challenges and choices that working mothers face – seems to come naturally as well, and it’s a topic that Obama riffs on easily, usually speaking without notes, in a relaxed, conversational style.
She gets nods from other women as she talks about the multiple hats most mothers are expected to wear, the guilt they feel when not spending time with their children, and the many directions in which they’re pulled.
And she tries to give listeners a window into her husband by talking about the three strong women in his life – his grandmother, his mother, and herself – and the ways in which their stories have helped him understand the issues important to women and mothers.
“These stories have really shaped who he has become as a man,” Obama told the Michigan audience, describing Barack’s grandmother hitting a glass ceiling in her job at a bank, and his mother’s effort to raise two children alone.
Obama has also been holding discussions with military spouses – speaking earlier this month with spouses in Norfolk, Va. – and has become interested in the particular challenges they face.
Both areas, say friends, are likely to continue to be Obama’s policy focus if she becomes first lady, though they’re hesitant to predict how active a presence she would be in the White House, since her daughters will continue to be her top priority.
“Michelle will create a new mold, and it’s too soon to say what it will be,” says close friend Valerie Jarrett.
Obama’s brother puts it even more simply: Obama would be a great first lady, Robinson says, because “everything she has ever done, she has done very well.”
Comments
2. Charles | 08.25.08
I learned a lot about Michele from this article. Thanks. It is a shame that the GOP slime machine will tarnish this nice woman’s reputation with all their distortions and lies.
3. Sara | 08.25.08
I still do not like Obama - but I like his wife. She is someone to be admired and emulated. She is a terrific role model.
4. Mark Wilhelm | 08.25.08
Please give a more thorough picture. I am curious how such an analytical, energetic, community minded, and excellent person could have sat in a church for so long and listened to Black Liberation theology, preached in such a hateful and racist way. The two stories do not match. So where is the real truth?
5. Kevin | 08.25.08
Clearly, Michelle’s writings at Princeton and opinions about the US are being unfairly mis-quoted and mis-characterized.
However, this article confirms a greater concern for this voter. Michelle and Barack are exceedingly MEDIOCRE. They aren’t devils or conspirators, buit their resumes are thin, their interests are pedestrian, and their intellects are very average.
It’s obvious that their careers were aided by “affirmative action” and, now, their fame rests on the guilt of a country hungry for racial healing.
McCain, quite frankly, is part of a whole different class. One with bigger dreams, accomplishments, sacrifices and knowledge. It’s hard to even compare the two.
Sorry. It needed to be said.
6. KiiA | 08.25.08
I feel that Obama and his wife are doing an excellent job. She’s by his side 100 percent. They have a beautiful family and he will become the next best president.
7. Gina | 08.25.08
Let us not forget … that in addition to statements like ‘America is a mean country’ … and, ‘this is the first time in my adult life that I’m proud to be an American’ … Michelle Obama also made the decision to expose her children for years, to Jeremiah Wright, Pfleiger, Moss, Farrakhan, and the rest of the radical anti-American racists at the black liberation Trinity Church of Chicago. Is this who we want for America’s first lady … I don’t think so !!!
8. Wayne White | 08.25.08
This article told me a few things about Michelle Obama I didn’t know, which is but one reason I found it of high quality since so much is already “out there” about her.
I experienced a touch of sadness when the article discussed what sort of a First Lady Michelle would make. Why would I react that way? With the polls now essentially a dead heat when, at this stage, Barack should be ahead given all that has gone wrong during the past 8 years because of the incompetence of McCain’s Republican predecessor, it is clear many Americans have significant doubts about him–and Michelle–for one reason or another. I also fear that not picking Hillary Clinton as his running mate, despite some of the nasty baggage from the primary campaign and Bill Clinton’s sulking, may well prove to be Barack’s worst mistake in the course of his effort to win the White House. All the polls I’ve seen in recent weeks indicate an Obama/Clinton ticket would have given Barack the lead he now lacks.
9. Liz Hallmark | 08.25.08
Kevin,
Upon what evidence do you claim ‘thin’ resumes, ‘pedestrian’ interests, and ‘average’ intelligence of this amazing couple? Your words do not reveal what leads you to these beliefs.
It is well-documented however, that when white people make ‘affirmative action’ accusations, this often shows simplistic, predictable and untested thinking on their part. It’s much easier to call names or dismiss someone who scares you than to figure out what assets they actually bring to the table.
10. Warren Anderson | 08.25.08
Michelle Obama is an upstanding self made success, as is her husband Barack. Contrast these two with McCain, who truly got into politics by dumping his first wife and marrying a rich heiress, whose daddy was a federally convicted bootlegger. Do a little research on the Hensley liquor fortune, and you’ll be surprised. The press, is constantly covering for McCain. All I see in these comments are Fox news talking points against the Obamas. Think for yourself.
Here’s some real news about the Hensley/McCain fortune. Where did all those houses really come from?
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2000-02-17/news/haunted-by-spirits
11. lizabeth Fry | 08.25.08
I resent the fact tht you continuously refer to Mrs. Obama
in your article as Obma. You refer to Mrs. Mc Cain, in every instance as Mrs.
You just seem so brutal and calous in this article.
E. Fry
12. Max | 08.25.08
My goodness…Some of the comments! That Michelle and Barack Obama are mediocre? [#5-Kevin] Princeton and Harvard are hardly mediocre. Look to McCain’s standing at the almost bottom of the US Naval Academy to find a mediocre (at best) intellect. But enough of this across the aisle name calling. I apologize for falling into that rut. I should have turned a cheek.
I for one enjoyed your article and am glad to have the insight into her life. No one has truly talked about her life and who she is until your article.
13. Liz | 08.25.08
It seems clear that no matter how Barack may desire to “transcend” issues of race, those issues are of tantamount importance to his wife. Her choice of major and thesis, her own descriptions of her thought processes and internal conflicts, and even her involvement with theology (as others have mentioned) all indicate that this is of far more than passing interest to her. While this may be understandable or even natural, it undeniably paves the way to characterizations of her as militant or aggressive in what she terms her “Blackness.”
And unfortunately, whether true or not, the impression that affirmative action and similar practices have furthered the Obamas’ careers is not something that can be either confirmed or dispelled. The nature of the practices themselves result in speculation like Kevin’s, as anyone who reads Justice Thomas’s dissent in Grutter v. Bollinger can tell you– and Thomas should know, he’s certainly been a victim of much of the same speculation.
What I’m disappointed by is this emphasis on race, so obvious and so ubiquitous that it causes me some considerable concern as a voter attempting to understand the Obamas’ political motivations.
14. dave | 08.25.08
Someone said the Michele Obama in this article does not jive with sitting in her church all that time. Ahh you are starting to see the problem. The smae people who lied and told you Michele was hateful etc did the same swift boat on Rev Wright. I have watched and read Rev wrights sermons and books. As a former seminarian to be a Catholuc priest I can say: I would listen to this guy preach every day. You can say the words “racist” “hateful” till you’re blue in the face and some uneducated people will believe you cause they are too lazy to investigate for themselves. but the reality is Rev wright is an educated pasionate man with a lot of the Holy Spirit and a prophetic message. Does that mean I agree with every word out of his mouth? no. Maybe I don’t believe AIDS was a germ warfare project to eliminate all the blacks and homosexuals. But certainly it is natural to wonder. But, putting the shoe on the other foot: if people without conscience who lie every time they speak were suddenly all dying Fox news would certainly be announcing it is a left wing conspiracy.
15. Jones | 08.25.08
Kevin:
The descritption you give of the Obama’s seems more befitting in describing yourself. I agree with Liz in that the first people to jump at the chance in “explaining” other’s achievements tend to be the people whose intellect is lacking at best. I don’t know what kind of family background you came from but your mother may have slipped in telling you to “think before you speak” - in this case “research before you type”. Some facts you failed to realize are that when affirmative action is used in schools or the workplace, the deciding bodies choose only those minorities whose credentials are far above their white peers. For example - (these are averges) A university whose minimum GPA requirement is 3.6 will accept whites with that GPA, however more than 80% of their minority peers accepted will have GPA’s starting at 3.9 and up. Do you get where I’m going with this? Even if Mrs. Obama was aided in getting accepted to Princeton, Princeton by no means lowered their standards to let her in, there is an 80% chance the bar was raised in her case - that is probably why she has become so succesful and infamous in the U.S. - you on the other hand are someone that couldn’t be picked out of a crowd.
16. raine | 08.26.08
I think Michelle wants to be First Lady much more than Obama wants the presidency.
He’s not the only one in the world who was raised in a single parent home or by a grandmother. She’s not the only one who had a father who got up every day with sickness and went to work to support his family. Is this their proof that they are “just like us”? These are not good enough reasons to elect Obama as president of our good country. Are we deciding this election on popularity or on the issues that matter most?
“she is also warm and cares about the personal lives of friends and colleagues.” Don’t we all care about our friends and colleagues?
What’s so unique about that! What is all the fuss about?
17. Kevin | 08.26.08
Liz, Jones, et al.
As I stated, Barack and Michelle are mediocre in comparison to John McCain. McCain’s lifelong service to his country and his regular acts of principle and conscience are a clear testimony to that.
Moreover, the Obamas have achieved little - and pursued little - in their adult life (even considering their relative youth). A few points I find revealing:
1. Barack required an 8-month sabbatical in Bali (yes, Bali) to write his autobiography.
2. Everyone knows that in the 80’s, an Ivy League education was VERY ATTAINABLE for African Americans. While Michelle and Barack may be smart, I have not heard that they had the perfect SATs and other qualifications that their peers earned.
3. While impressive in many circles, their lawyer and community jobs are not the resume of a POTUS. Even Reagan and Clinton saw the need to “make their bones” as governors before daring to aspire to this office.
4. Not one peice of legislation can be credited to, in part or in full, to Obama. In fact, long before this election cycle, he was chastised by John McCain for abandoning his work on a shared legislative effort.
5. Finally, I have seen and read many interviews with Obama and had not heard one original or deep thought. He regularly references his mom, his wife, etc. because he frankly has little interesting or challenging life experience to recall.
That said, it’s a whole new day, and maybe Chauncey Gardener deserves his chance.
18. Mike | 08.26.08
Jones,
Your GPA analysis for Universities is flawed. GPAs are absolutely unreliable for college entrance purposes. The variations in curriculum, grading policies and other factors make a 4.0 at school A equivalent to a 2.0 at school B. In truth, standardized testing (SATs, Iowa tests, etc.) is the best measure of ones “intelligence” or “academic ability”.
Michelle went to a good HS, so maybe she was very deserving of her acceptance into Princeton. But, it’s a stretch to say that the “bar was raised” for her. Based on her college thesis and her first job, I think she is average or above average - not exceptional.
19. Nancy Brockway | 08.26.08
Folks - My (white) sister married an African (Nigerian) and they have three fabulous children. One son went to Brown University (like all three, on a scholarship), and (like his brother and sister) benefited from affirmative action. He’s a successful engineer now. At the time, some years ago, his Black classmates pushed him to be nothing but Black, and to segregate from white society (his mother’s heritage). I can understand his classmates’ feelings, and can’t say I blame them, but they were still self-defeating, dead-end attitudes. My nephew would not go along with this rejection of whites.
I sense that Barack Obama (coming from a family with a white mother and an African father) is aware, like my nephew, of the urgent need to get beyond the us/them divide of American racial history. I do hope that the success of Obama has (and will continue) to get us all past that period when Black descendents of slaves turn away from white America because of the (very real) injustices of our history. From reading about her thesis, it seems that Michelle Obama struggled with the same schisms in her community of Black college classmates, and has come away rejecting the self-segregation and politics of victimization. Her parents were strong on family and hard work, and both these qualities shine through with Michelle Obama.
20. Marjorie Baker | 08.26.08
I agree that the Obamas seem average. I read the E! interview and he couldn’t even express an opinion on movies or TV. Born Free? MASH? Huh?
He seems to have two interests - basketball and his kids. That’s fine. My husband is the same way. But my husband ought not be President.
I want both parties to nominate someone who has decided America is greater than his/her family or his/her health. It sounds terrible, right? But Adams, Reagan and Lincoln all were men who neglected their kids because they were saving the country.
I don’t see any of that in Obama. Maybe later.
21. John | 08.26.08
I tbink Obama is a bit of fresh air, after all we have been going through in this country. We need big changes and I have not heard any other candidate even suggegest that. We
need someone who cares about us and I think he is the right person. I think he will clean house and get things back to normal, taking care of what the american people need and not what other countries need. Charity begins at home!
22. Charlie | 08.26.08
“Above all else, she is a great parent,” says her brother. “Family comes first to her. It comes first naturally, and honestly.”
Please note that this does NOT pertain to Barack’s brother in Kenya. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/barackobama/2590614/Barack-Obamas-lost-brother-found-in-Kenya.html)
I noticed last week that Barack said his “greatest moral failing” was doing drugs in college. What does it say about a man who thinks youthful indiscretions rank on the order of leaving a brother to live and die in poverty while enjoying worldwide celebrity status and wealth?
Yeah. He’s not narcissistic anymore.
23. Becca | 08.26.08
Does anyone accept a politician at face value anymore?
As a voter I am not evaluating canditates or their wives based solely on what they say and how they present themselves.
The intent of candidates is to appeal to as many voters as possible.
They spin speech and image frequently towards this purpose.
For Independents the process of selection is not based strictly on party affiliation and platform.
As a voter I am now hypervigilant.
I am listening in between the lines and looking for signs of disingenousness…searching for the gaps between word and action.
I am weary of deceptive candidates.
John Edwards for example.
It is unfortunate that sociopaths and narcissists don’t get automatically eliminated in the early rounds of political life. In fact political life seems especially suited to characterologically damaged individuals.
What are the reliable indicators of truth or character?
Voters have to sort it out.
We have to exercise our own judgement and discriminatory skills and hopefully assess the qualities and characteristics that fit our leadership criteria.
Any incongruity between what is said and contradictory evidence is what makes me curious to look further.
If Michelle and Obama have enjoyed affiliations with Ayers and Rev Wright for 20 years and consider these people their trusted friends and advisors I would prefer honesty on that subject. If would seem it became politically expedient to disavow the associations.
Would you catagorize this as deliberate deception, spin, defensive posturing to avoid negative spin by opponents?
I think it would be foolish to actually trust much of anything a campainging candidate says. I will look at what ever evidence the MSM and internet media can put forward to make my decision this year.
24. Charlie | 08.26.08
““Above all else, she is a great parent,” says her brother. “Family comes first to her. It comes first naturally, and honestly.””
I guess this does not pertain to her BROTHER-IN-LAW recently discovered in Kenya living in poverty on $1/month.
Last week at Saddleback, Obama stated that his “biggest moral failing” was dabbling in drugs during college. What does it say about this guy (and his soul mate Michelle) if he can equate the common indiscretions of youth with the deliberate and longstanding neglect of a starving half-brother in poverty-stricken Africa. Barack met with him in recent years and did nothing - despite his fame, fortune and incessant preaching about “lifting people up”.
I think he also said he used to be narcissistic. Yeah, that’s all over with!?!
25. Liz | 08.26.08
Kevin (#5 & #17),
What I’m curious about is why you apparently believe that military service is the only form of principle and conscience that counts.
Also, very interesting, but I wasn’t aware that going to Bali lowered the prestige of one’s sabbatical leave or project. Must be a terrible place.
Just wondering also, who “everyone” is who knows that in the 80’s, an Ivy League education was VERY ATTAINABLE for African Americans?
And finally, I am quite bewildered as to how you seem to “know” what qualifications the Obamas’ peers earned (that the Obamas did not?) without interviewing every one of them.
Your exaggerated claims make it difficult for a reader to grant much credence to the rest of your opinions.
27. Colony14 Author | 09.05.08
How about the media digging into that “Public Allies” program that Obama wants to expand with taxpayer money? This program is designed to churn out anti-capitalist, Marxist radicals. Stop hiding the truth!
28. Jon | 09.07.08
Nice puff piece about Michelle Obama. Frankly, I would expect nothing less from a modern day graduate of Princeton and HLS. However, I am still trying to figure out how all of this background justifies a $300K+ salary at the University of Chicago Hospitals. Also, it would be revealing to all readers of the Christian Science Monitor if the paper could do a real story on “Public Allies”.
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1. Osama Angry | 08.25.08
Some want to portray this woman as “angry”.
She has done nothing that could be portrayed as angry.
She just is excellent.
Though, there are things to be angry about, you will recall.
Bin Laden thumbing his nose at us.
That he is still out there releasing his venom makes me angry.
Aren’t you angry about that?
What about running the American economy into the ground?
What about sending a trillion dollars from our economy to the enemies of the USA, Venezuela, Arabia, Russia for their petroleum?
What about destroying the planet with not alternative energy policy bedcause the oil industry writes our future program?