A new book (“The Obamas” by Jodi Kantor) and some old rumblings about Rahm Emmanuel and Richard Daley Jr. not being able to get along with her, has put Michelle Obama on the defensive.
Unfortunately, even on the defensive, Ms. Obama, like many politically correct progressives, reflexively plays the race card. Headlines abound on Michelle Obama “Rejecting the ‘Angry Black Woman’ Label.”
Unfortunately retreating to identity politics makes her appear more venal, not less.
And that’s unfortunate, because all-in-all, she hasn’t been a bad First lady at all.
Her anti-obesity campaign is as vital as any that any previous First lady has endorsed.
Aside from some “inside the beltway” grumblings Michelle Obama has kept a pretty low profile and has handled her role quite well.
The unfortunate thing here is that a defensive response from the First Lady dredges up the initial resentments created by her ill-timed and ill-conceived February, 2008 remark in Milwaukee, “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m really proud of my country...”
There’s no reason to do that.
Her anti-obesity campaign has drawn rave reviews and she’s conducted herself so well that for 3+ years not even her harshest critics have had much to harp on at all.
Certainly this flap will further highlight the wide disparity in perspective between blacks and whites with more Conservative whites seeing this as just more evidence of Michelle Obama’s petulance, while many black women in particular being able to relate to the “angry black woman” charge as a an example of a not so subtle bigotry at work.
There’s little chance of any of this being instructive, or helping bridge that perspective divide.
Ultimately, no good comes from this flap and Ms Obama’s response to it.
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