The Obama Women
She was elegant, poised, articulate and had the Dems at the DNC convention melting with her every word; yes, Sasha Obama stole the show from her hot, equally poised and articulate mother, Michelle. And Malia, looking like she wanted to jump through the screen to kiss her daddy...was so real, so achingly sweet and too cute!
Michelle garnered generally good reviews for her speech last night in Denver, (Washington Post, MSNBC), with the occasional kook (hello Leslie Sanchez!) who was left wondering (uh... wondering what?) after seeing Michelle in a "cocktail dress"? Seriously? Wondering about what she's wearing???
Danielle Crittenden at the HuffPo writes thoughtfully of her assessment of Michelle Obama as a post-feminist political candidate's wife:
Hillary Clinton takes the DNC convention stage tonight for her speech. Wonder what she'll be wearing. I know Leslie Sanchez is wondering.
Michelle garnered generally good reviews for her speech last night in Denver, (Washington Post, MSNBC), with the occasional kook (hello Leslie Sanchez!) who was left wondering (uh... wondering what?) after seeing Michelle in a "cocktail dress"? Seriously? Wondering about what she's wearing???
Danielle Crittenden at the HuffPo writes thoughtfully of her assessment of Michelle Obama as a post-feminist political candidate's wife:
Think of it this way: When was the last time a nominee's wife stepped forward to assert her children and her marriage were more important and satisfying to her than her career? Indeed, to speak of the necessity of putting her career aside for her husband's political ambition--and to do so without a whiff of resentment? Heck, when was the last time you saw a candidate's wife--any candidates wife! -- proclaim her love for her husband without that husband having been caught cheating on her first? And to do all this without driving the media into a hissy fit: "OMG she's setting women's rights back a generation!"
For neither is Michelle Obama some retro caricature of a "desperate housewife." How could she be, with her pumped figure, her confident, outspoken manner, and the way she sometimes looks, when goaded, like she's chewing on marbles? This is not a woman to be messed with. This is not a woman who feels inferior to her husband. This is not a woman without ambition or dreams. But she seems to possess the modern understanding that women's ambitions and dreams aren't always realized on a straight trajectory; that marriage and family are as much a part of those ambitions and dreams as a promotion or job title; and that when a husband succeeds politically, it does not negate her importance but amplifies it.
Hillary Clinton takes the DNC convention stage tonight for her speech. Wonder what she'll be wearing. I know Leslie Sanchez is wondering.
Labels: dnc convention '08, malia obama, michelle obama, sasha obama
Posted by Debbie @ 8/26/2008 09:40:00 AM
19 Comments:
Interesting that Michelle Robinson Obama's senior thesis was locked up by Princeton until after the election, until there was enough outcry that the Obama campaign released it.
Below is a synopsis; I think that her speech last night and her current standing proves her thesis wrong.
------------------
Michelle Obama did not believe she could ever be fully integrated into white society as a black woman, she wrote in her 1985 Princeton University senior-year thesis, and sometimes felt like a “visitor” at the Ivy League school, rather than an accepted student.
The thesis, published by Politico.com, reveals that the wife of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was concerned that black Princeton alumni were inculcated into white culture at the expense of their own. She said despite her own integration there, she could not benefit at Princeton the way white students did.
“I have found that at Princeton, no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my white professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don’t belong. Regardless of the circumstances under which I interact with whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be black first and a student second,” Obama wrote.
She also wrote that going to Princeton likely would lead to her “further integration and/or assimilation into a white cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant.”
Politico wrote that the school had removed the thesis, titled “Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community” and written under Obama’s maiden name, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson, from the school library until after the general election. The Obama campaign began distributing it after several outlets had received no assistance from the university.
She does not dress very well...she would look better in a suit that was tailored to take advantage of her height and eliminate that she seems to be too long in legs and arms,and not well proportioned.
valley doll, did you listen to the content of the speech? what exactly seemed EXCEPTIONAL about it to you?
obama has good oratory skills, but the content of the speech was very middle of the road and uninformative.
so says everyone. don't be smitten with the woman's new hairdo, which was very good, and her FINALLY smiling, which is nice when she does it.
don't be taken by the visual. what did you come away learning that you didn't know before?
Does Valley Dork agree with Joe Biden when he said that O'bama "wasn't ready" to be President?
I'd like to know.
What's more important is if Valley Dork agrees with Joe Biden that O'Bama is the first articulate, clean black man to run for president.
What say you, Valley Dork? Do you agree with Joe Biden's comments?
The 1985 thesis is written by a thoughtful young woman based on her experience and insights... at the time.
Surely, what one may have believed, felt or thought as a young adult with limited life-experience (honestly, who knows EVERYTHING in their twenties?) should certainly never be made to stick to your adult reality as you now know it to be.
Where were YOU politically in 1985? And do you still hold to those beliefs you had then?
I don't wear pink hair anymore. I used to in 1985. I don't anymore. Things change.
Call me a flip-flopper, I know, I know.
Michelle Obama has a very harsh appearance and is loathe to smile.
I was very surprised at the bare shoulders dress and thought it was inappropriate. For someone who went to Princeton and Harvard, I would have expected a classy professional outfit.
This dress only emphasized her massive shoulders and very wide hips.
Valley D-
A quick note, as I'm on the vacation road and waiting for my flight.
The thesis didn't just represent what Michelle O. thought at the time. She just last year said the exact same thing when she said it was "the first time she was proud of her country."
Michelle felt this way about "white" society in 1985, and she feels the same way now.
Her words are the same then as they are now. I 'luv ya' and respect your right to disagree. But this woman has not evolved from that original stance.
Sure, they tell her what to say as they helped her write her speech. But in the same way that Obama now wears a lapel pin only after a storm of controversy, her exact quote speaks for itself.
That is why Princeton took the essay off of its website until after the election. Even Princeton knows that it's a condemning piece of history.
For what it's worth, I thought her hair was great and it was good to see her smile, as someone noted above.
Okay, I have to go. Have fun everyone.
11:36 Uh... I never used the word EXCEPTIONAL. Did YOU read what I wrote. Obviously not. No reading comprehension. Try again.
11:52 Valley Dork does not agree wtih Joe Biden's remark that Obama isn't ready to be president. Valley Dork does agree that Joe Biden is the King of Crazy Talk, but hey, it is what it is. He often misspeaks. Get over it.
People misspeak all the time.
Just ask Cindy McCain about the time Mother Teresa told her personally to adopt the poor little brown babies.
Next.
12:08 said I was very surprised at the bare shoulders dress and thought it was inappropriate. For someone who went to Princeton and Harvard, I would have expected a classy professional outfit.
Oh gawd help us one and all.
Michelle's shoulder-less dresses have garnered attention, some seeing parallels to Jackie O, "because both have good arms," (sad comparison -- Jackie's body would have been chic even today), others just a bad sense of Mervyn's off-the-rack from a woman who's too large to try to be chic or cute that way.
Those dresses suit Jackie O, Paris/Linday or Cindy McCain, but not a giantess with those huge shoulders and neck of a football player. And she's got a giant butt.
She should get real and take a page from Oprah in conservative things with a waistline, and some draping. That be one big gal, who dwarfs that little husband of hers.
Seems like the cutesy dress thing is designed to make her look less threatening and Cape Cod summer casual -- isn't working.
LATimes.com:
"Obama's rhetroic is" now exposed as "just plain words."
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-goldberg26-2008aug26,0,2805567.column
What does it say, valley dork, that O'bama picked a guy for vp who is given to, as you say, "crazy talk."
He's supposed to pick someone who can be an advisor and successor.
Not someone given to "crazy talk."
You're making the case pretty well. You're focused on her dress, rather than the message.
VD, did you see the Times this morning? It's a major left-leaning newspaper and even it is saying that Obama's choice of Biden shows that the change message is now exposed as empty.
Hillary Clinton is going to be the final nail in the O'bama coffin.
She didn't ruin things for O'bama; his socialist views did that. Reverend Wright, the bomber friend, Father Phleger allowed those views to be exposed.
But I think the Clinton supporters, which even if only a quarter go to McCain, will represent millions of votes.
Mocking an old war p.o.w. was a major mistake.
OOOOOH, a Mayor Sam's cat-fight, bitch-slap fest.
A first for this blog.
Gotta LOVE it!
I'd like to see the invoice Obama bin Biden 08 got from the image consultant who worked with Ms. Robinson-Obama.
Regardless of what Ms. Robinson-Obama wrote in her thesis and if she believes it now (she does) or not -
Why did the Obama campaign have it embargoed only until they got sufficient enough crap to release it?
We white people need to get our heads out of our behine, it is time for a chance we have ruled this country for ever, you see what Bush did for us. McCain will do the same. We have destroyed the country. Sold the country. It time we take back the WHITE HOUSE, if it has to be a Black man that can do it, lets give him a chance to show us. Do you all like paying over $4.00 for gas? Paying so much for the commom thins we need. Thats all because of Bush. STOP HATING, I know we all can get along, Because now we all need help.
You see BUSH don"t care about you or your family, just himself, He is the first president that has common sense. So it"s up to us to vote for some one that cares about the changes we need here in this country. come on now I know we can do this. I don"t want so see anothere 4 years of Bush, I would be homeless. And when do being a POW make you a good president. If thas so there are many POW out here that could run, if thats all it takes. When McCain was a POW he had no kitchen table, no bedroom, no bathroom, now he has 7 houses, There are thousand of american people losing their homes, and he seem not to care, saying they should have read the paper work before signing it. Why did McCain leave his first wife when he returned home? was it for the MONEY of his new wife, Please think about things before you go to vote. Just becaue we are WHITE IS NOT SAYING WE ARE ALWAYS RIGHT.
Michelle Obama gave an inspiring, intelligent and hopeful speech last night. She defined what can be accomplished with enough determination, intelligence and familial support in this great country! Kudos to Michelle Obama! You would make a superb First Lady!
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