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Michelle Obama speaks to those too young to remember JFK or LBJ

Submitted by Chad on Wed, 02/20/2008 - 1:33pm.

Be-Elected

BE-ELECTED
by Chad Rubel

Michelle Obama is 44 years old. According to Wikipedia, she turned 44 on January 17.

I am 41 (January 26 if anyone is asking).

When I heard Michelle Obama's statement, it resonated with me.

"For the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country, and not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change."

Now I don't have a horse in the Democratic Party race. I personally have been Switzerland from the start. But I really liked what Michelle said.

Older readers (defined as older than me) might remember John F. Kennedy or Lyndon Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act. But Michelle doesn't and I don't. I can relate to that.

So put yourself in our situation. I do remember having my cartoons interrupted for the Watergate hearings, and I remember my parents insisting on making us watch Richard Nixon go through the back of the White House to the helicopter. But when Nixon took off in the helicopter, I was 7.

The first Democratic president I remember was Jimmy Carter. I grew up in a conservative area, so I remember much Carter-bashing. My parents liked Carter, so it wasn't an issue inside the house. While Carter was the first president I really remember, this was still in my childhood.

By the time Bill Clinton came along, I was 25 and Michelle was 29 during the 1992 election. There was hope after 12 miserable, deflating, depressing years of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Everything I had learned growing up about how society had been was being dismantled and thrown out the window. So even though I thought I had hope, I never previously had hope, so I don't think I really knew what hope was.

The 1992 election of Bill Clinton could qualify as a time to be proud of our country in my adult lifetime, and if Michelle is completely honest, she might admit that was true.

But I can also understand if looking back on it now, pride isn't quite the word to use. Relief might be a better phrase. Finally we had a president who wouldn't do more damage to our country. But the anguish of the MSM beating up on Bill Clinton became too much to take. I am 41 and the only president in my lifetime, adult or otherwise, who did not get a honeymoon period was Bill Clinton. As Clinton gave concession after concession to the right to get them on his side, what hope there was had drained away.

Two stolen elections since then, along with further dismantling of what little we have left in society, and I'm not sure, even more than in 1992, what hope is.

Bill Clinton was a centrist. Heck, even the "liberal" bastion of John F. Kennedy appointed Byron "Whizzer" White to the Supreme Court. White dissented on Miranda v. Arizona and Roe v. Wade. Hope to me is someone who be an architect for truly making a difference.

If the next president is Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, unlike Michelle Obama, I might feel relief, not hope. I would wait to see if the MSM can treat a Democratic president as well as (or even close to) a Republican president. I would wait to see if the new president can make a difference in re-establishing some semblance of the great things our society used to be before Reagan.

Michelle Obama said, "because I think people are hungry for change." The people are so hungry for change, Michelle; they are starving so badly they don't remember what food tastes like. But will they really get fed -- in my adult lifetime?

Speaks to the young

Submitted by andyod on Fri, 02/22/2008 - 9:36am.

And tells them to be ashamed.

Much ado about nothin

Submitted by V on Thu, 02/21/2008 - 12:04pm.

What clap trap. Are we going to parse every word every DEMOCRAT says like they have been doing since Carter, while
inbred republicans get away with saying anything? Give me a break. And by the way are YOU proud of Abu Graib, or Our Invasion of Iraq, or our lies to the U.N. and the world and our torture and rendition or our snubbing Kyoto. I am proud and have been proud of America for it's inclusiveness and it's sense of fairness but there are many things I am not so proud of. Michelle is not sacrificing here privacy and her family time and her energy and the big money she could be makiing in her career or subjecting herself to the world scrutiny because she does not love America. She loves America probably more than I because I could not make the sacrifices she is making.
Don't let the media and their thirst for contreversy and ratings smear good people.

Michelle

Submitted by andyod on Wed, 02/20/2008 - 8:49pm.

I note you have picked the more benign of her speeches. In her first speech she did not include "Really" she just said the sentence without the really. Perhaps you were not aware of that. It changes the meaning completely.Now I came to America in 1960 and since that have learned the history of this great country.Perhaps I am in the minority ,but I learned to be proud of America . It's history of the fight for it's freedom from England ,it's civil war to free the slaves. It's support for Europe during the two WW's.These things I learned and I learned most of them from reading and studying. I also watched Ken Burns video's about our history. I was not born in the time of those events but I am surely proud to be an American because of them. Nothing that Obama has done has added to that pride.I am sorry for Michelle that nobody taught her anything to be proud of.Maybe if Connie Rice, or Andy Young sat down with her they might teach her something to be proud of. It is sad to think that such an ill informed person might be our first lady some day.

Neither black nor under 50

Submitted by Colleen Clark on Wed, 02/20/2008 - 8:39pm.

That's me. I didn't hear Michelle Obama's speech but her sentiment resonated with me. It has been a long dreary slog since LBJ got us mired in Vietnam (yes, I'm aware that what he inherited from JFK) and lost the glow he deserved for the "War on Poverty."

I was among the first wave of Peace Corps volunteers who signed up with enthusiasm to help make the world a better place. Surely we were naive, but we worked hard, made lifelong contacts and friendships around the world and learned more than we ever taught. But we were not embarrassed to be Americans, much less ashamed. It's been a long slog since Nixon and Watergate. But the last 8 years have been the pits. The GWB administration has practiced, tolerated, and even justified torture, thereby permanently tainting the US claim to have a little moral high ground in world affairs.

Change is not a program, but without it we can't even begin to restore our credibility and to find our path.

So right on Michelle Obama, and Chad and my own kids, for that matter, who were born in 1967 and 1972. My oldest granddaughter won't be 17 until next week and so can't vote in Nov. She has gone off to college early and before Super Tuesday I asked her what her age eligible friends were thinking about the election. Obama all the way. If it's good enough for the future it should be good enough for the present.

Colleen Clark
Cambridge, MA

Wait a minute...

Submitted by Chabuka on Wed, 02/20/2008 - 8:06pm.

Michelle is 44..? JFK was assassinated 45 year ago..she wasn't even born, and just a baby when LBJ was President..so how does she "school" any body on JFK or LBJ...? I have no problem with Michelle, I just don't get how she knows more than any one else about those two Presidents...I was 13 when Kennedy was assassinated....I remember where I was and exactly what I was doing, when we got that terrible news, a whole nation in shock and mourning, like nothing I had ever seen before or since...I also lost both my Grandfathers and my Father in 1963...it was a very bad year..

She'd better answer the criticism fast

Submitted by CarrieAnnie on Wed, 02/20/2008 - 3:36pm.

Everyone (who can't view the world/country through a black woman's perspective) is in a lather about her comment. She'd better go public with a response soon, before this gets away from her. I understand where she's coming from, but she needs to take hold of this so the blathering talking heads on TV will drop it.

Everyone is American

Submitted by gjoh on Wed, 02/20/2008 - 7:02pm.

That's part of what's wrong in America today. She has an American point of view not just a "black woman's" point of view.

Do you mean that a white woman her age or a Hispanic woman her age couldn't possibly relate to her experience; couldn't possibly have something in common with a "black woman"?

Are a "black woman's American experiences so foreign as to not be considered valid by you? What's wrong with you? I grew up in America too and I find everyday that Americans have more in common than some care to admit. I'm over 50 and I can understand what she was talking about.

We've been viewing the world through a white man's perspective since the founding of this country. A change of perspective might be instructive.

Dear gjoh

Submitted by andyod on Wed, 02/20/2008 - 9:04pm.

Dear gjoh ,Why not view the world through the eyes of a White Female Pimp as your friends call the other candidate That might be instructive and give you something to be proud of.Or you could view it through the sheets of the KKK,that might also help your view and give your friend something to be proud of.But since MLK and BK died before you were born they are irrelevant to the "Me generation" of Michelle.Certainly dying for something except for shopping in an integrated mall would have little appeal to the present generation of black voters.

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