February 20, 2008

Not Buying It

Michelle Obama's comments about her pride in America have apparently put her husband on the defensive. Barack Obama tried to spin the comments made by Mrs. Obama in Milwaukee on Monday as relating only to politics, but the quote speaks for itself:

Barack Obama, interviewed on WOAI radio in San Antonio, Texas, expressed frustration that his wife's comments became political fodder.

"Statements like this are made and people try to take it out of context and make a great big deal out of it, and that isn't at all what she meant," Obama said.

"What she meant was, this is the first time that she's been proud of the politics of America," he said. "Because she's pretty cynical about the political process, and with good reason, and she's not alone. But she has seen large numbers of people get involved in the process, and she's encouraged."

In Milwaukee on Monday, Michelle Obama said: "Let me tell you, for the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country. Not just because Barack is doing well, but I think people are hungry for change."

Obama's spin doesn't wash. Michelle Obama didn't say For the first time in my adult life, I'm really proud to be in American politics, which would have been questionable enough. She told the audience that she had never taken great pride in her country -- until it seemed poised for "change", and especially seemed poised to elect her husband as President.

That's simply not a parsable message. Not only does she reject the Democratic administration between 1993-2001, but she rejects some amazing American accomplishments over the last quarter century -- and even beyond that. After all, as an adult, I can take pride in the success of the 230-year-old experiment in self-government that America represents. The country that put a man on the moon, and then followed it with several more, certainly should stir some feelings of pride and awe for Michelle Obama, especially given that a Democratic president envisioned it in the first place. We liberated an entire continent from the scourge of Naziism in the 1940s, and then in her lifetime liberated Eastern Europe from the scourge of the Iron Curtain that followed.

And let's not forget that American politics drove all of these accomplishments, too. It's our representative democracy that created the force that made all of that possible. Just as with any other enterprise, it has its crooks and incompetents, but American politics has also produced men and women who have changed the world, including FDR, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Ronald Reagan, and many more.

How can one live as an adult and not take great pride in those accomplishments? One has to start from a perspective that sees America as a malevolent force, a viewpoint typical of the hard Left. No matter what good America does, they see the nation as shameful because of its lack of perfection. And they want to gain power so that they can impose the solutions for these perceived imperfections in a top-down, autocratic manner.

Barack Obama knows that he has to push back against this comment, not because Michelle Obama got misunderstood, but because it reveals so much about the Obamas. (via Michelle Malkin)

Addendum: The Anchoress has a great post about the similarities between 2008's Michelle Obama and 1992's Hillary Clinton.

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» She said it TWICE and she meant it. Also, life doesn’t suck, so stop demanding that it does. from Neocon News
As you can see from the previous Michelle Obama post, there was some confusion as to what she actually said in regards to her American pride. From Gateway Pundit and Jawa Report we can clear that up. I previously referenced the audio glitch as causing ... [Read More]

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