Michelle Obama is an amazing piece of work, as chronicled by Mark Steyn in the
current issue of National Review. She seems the perfect product of a soft-Marxist education (the same education I received — only I am not a perfect product, obviously).
Couple of points on her most recent remarks. She told an audience, “Folks are struggling like never before.” I realize hyperbole is common on the campaign trail, as in ordinary conversation, but come on: the Great Depression (for one, obvious period)?
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In addition, Mrs. O. said, “. . . when people talk about this elitist stuff, I say, ‘You couldn’t possibly know anything about me.’ So let me give you a better sense of who me and Barack are and why we’re doing this.”
Maybe she’s proving her non-elitism with bad grammar . . .
Barack Obama is a very flexible politician — and flexibility, of course, is an important political ingredient. The flag lapel pin is on, the flag lapel pin is off — and then it’s on again. Kind of like Hillary’s name: The “Rodham” is in, the “Rodham” is out, the “Rodham” is in the middle — etc.
Got a letter from a friend, wanted to share it:
I was driving through Poughkeepsie today and saw an Obama sign prominently placed on someone’s front door and an “American” flag hanging next to it. The flag was the usual stars and stripes, but in “African” colors: black, green, and gold. It startled me, and its implications are huge and a bit frightening. The race divisions in this country are sickening to me, and show a lack of spiritual and political maturity. Any thoughts?
Yes: I agree.
Let me return to something I’ve harped on before. During his presidency, Bill Clinton told that little fib about “misspeaking” because it was late at night, and he was tired. Remember what he said? “My mama always told me never to speak after 7 o’clock.” Only he had “misspoken” at, say, noon.
Well, Hillary told the same fib after her Bosnia-sniper business. Then it was established that she had done her “misspeaking” in broad daylight. And then — just when the issue seemed settled — Bill Clinton came along and revived the fib!
“. . . there was a lot of fulminating because Hillary, one time late at night when she was exhausted, misstated — and immediately apologized for it — what happened to her in Bosnia in 1995.”
And then:
“And you woulda thought, you know, that she’d robbed a bank, the way they carried on about this. And some of them, when they’re 60, they’ll forget something when they’re tired at 11 at night, too.”
He just can’t help himself, can he? I mean, it seems reflexive — something for a psychologist to study. But I must say I liked that line about robbing a bank. Very nice. The line is also redolent of an era. Do people rob banks anymore? When I was growing up, I read bank-robbery stories all the time. Now I don’t. Maybe I am merely missing them. Or maybe this kind of crime is accomplished electronically . . .
Speaking of reading newspapers: All of my life, I have read stories about school-prayer controversies and school-prayer rulings. I bet you have too. And we’ll go on reading them, forever. The latest one has to do with a New Jersey football team: “A New Jersey school board was within its rights to tell a football coach he cannot kneel and bow his head as members of his team have a student-led pre-game prayer, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.”
Yeah, sure. And then the ACLU, or ACLU-ish, guy comes in and says, “Extreme care needs to be given to any involvement by school personnel even with student-led religious activities because it’s very easy to cross the line and find yourself over the constitutional cliff.”
Yeah, sure. You know, I wish people would just come out and say they don’t want school prayer, or team prayer, or any other kind of prayer, as it relates to schools — instead of pretending that it has anything whatever to do with the Constitution. If you told the authors of the Constitution that the First Amendment was being interpreted as prohibiting school prayer — especially voluntary prayer — they would say, “You must have smoked something, and you must have inhaled.”
Hang on, that expression was popular in the early 1990s, when Billy J. was big on the scene. Talk about “redolent of an era”!
One thing I liked about the above-cited school-prayer article: One of the appeals judges is named Maryanne Trump Barry. (The article misspells Her Honor’s first name.) Very close to “Marion Barry.” And you got the “Trump” thrown in!
Marvelous name.
Hang on, let me go back to Obama again — to Mrs. Obama, actually. Forgot something. She said, “I want people to know when they look at me, to be clear that they see what an investment in public education can look like.”
I spoke earlier of a soft-Marxist education. Think she had a little self-esteem education, too?
Some people have said, “Jay, you have to comment on Jimmy Carter and Hamas!” I can’t, I can’t. I have said all about Carter I can. He is simply too Groundhog Day-y. I have said that he has a twisted fondness for the enemies, not only of his own country, but of civilization at large. I have noted how tight he was with Arafat — that murderer of many, including an American diplomat (Cleo Noel). Carter will keep doing this until he can’t anymore. And that’ll be that.
(For my “Carterpalooza” of 2002, go here.)
The latest from Bill Richardson, New Mexico’s governor? He was explaining why he endorsed Obama, rather than Hillary. And he was refuting the idea that he owes his career to Bill Clinton, whose cabinet he served in. “Look, I was a successful congressman rescuing hostages before I was appointed.”
All class, Bill Richardson is, all class. Amazing that such a man has gone so far — even if his presidential campaign did flop.
