Thursday, February 21, 2008

BARACK OBAMA

Michelle Obama: 'Every Woman That I Know... Is Struggling to Keep Her Head Above Water.'

In light of the controversy of her recent comments, it may be worthwhile to look at these comments from Michelle Obama, back on April 16, 2007:

But seriously, with the exception of the campaign trail and life in the public eye, I have to say that my life now is not really that much different from many of yours. I wake up every morning wondering how on earth I am going to pull off that next minor miracle to get through the day. I know that everybody in this room is going through this. That is the dilemma women face today. Every woman that I know, regardless of race, education, income, background, political affiliation, is struggling to keep her head above water. We try to convince ourselves that somehow doing it all is a badge of honor, but for many of us it is a necessity and we have to be very careful not to lose ourselves in the process. More often than not, we as women, are the primary caretakers in our households, scheduling babysitters, planning play dates, keeping up with regular doctor’s appointments; this was my week last week, supervising homework, handing our discipline. Usually we are the ones in charge of keeping the household together. I know you men, I know that you guys try to do your part, but the reality is that we’re doing it, right? (laughter and applause) Laundry, cleaning, cooking, shopping, home repairs. You know Barack has my back, he’s right there with me, feels my pain, and all that. (laughter)

And, for those of us who work outside of the home as well, we have the additional challenge of coordinating these things with our job responsibilities. How many of us have had to be the ones, when a child gets sick, who is the one who stays home? Or, when a toilet overflows? This was a couple of months ago. I was scrambling around to reschedule being at a 9 o’clock meeting and Barack, love him to death, put on his clothes and he left! (laughter)

Balancing work and family is a challenge. (Sometimes your son makes a deposit in his diaper at the exact moment that John McCain is beginning his press conference.) Some people have an easier time, some people have a harder time. I think it's common to say that a lot of people wish the day had twenty-eight or thirty-two hours - an extra hour of sleep here, an hour of down time there, an hour to do the tasks we've been meaning to get to...

But I don't think I'd call it "struggling to keep one's head above water."

What would our grandparents who got through the Great Depression think of this whining?

I realize that dystopian populism is the bread and butter of modern Democratic campaigns, and I realize that this rhetoric is meant to get the folks in the audience to say, "hey, she's just like me! She has the same problems I do!" But there's a note of ingratitude (we're lucky to be alive at a moment like this, and we're lucky to live in the United States) and an obliteration of perspective, when "scheduling babysitters, planning play dates, keeping up with regular doctor’s appointments" are described as tasks overwhelming the citizenry.

By the way, as the L.A. Times noted, "The couple's combined salaries were more than $430,000 in 2006, according to their tax return. In addition, Barack Obama earned $551,000 in book royalties. The family lives in a $1.6-million home in Chicago."

UPDATE: On a related note, Nick Gillespie over at Reason goes after Mrs. Obama's more recent comments, "We don't need a world full of corporate attorneys and hedge-fund managers," she told a crowd in a Baptist church in Cheraw, S.C., last month. "But see, that's the only way you can pay back your educational debt!" They use four-letter words over there, just FYI, and he uses an eight letter word to describe her assessment of the allegedly dire fiscal outlook of Ivy League graduates.

02/21 03:41 PMShare