Michelle Obama finally went there.
The first lady jumped head first into a discussion about racial issues. ...The Hill
Pushing and shoving to be the next person on stage and in the center of the spot were a bunch of overweight rightwing commentators, each with a studiously nasty comment on Michelle Obama's female blackness.
The political downsides for both of the Obamas are clear enough. In using the words she did, she risked reactivating an entire narrative that had surrounded her in 2008. This idea that she was in some nebulous way radical and less-than-fully American had been a corrosive one, buttressed most powerfully by her now-infamous campaign trail statement that “for the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country.”
That image was one that it took a great deal of time and work to undo — beginning, perhaps, with her ostentatiously patriotic address to the 2008 Democratic National Convention and continuing with her signature White House initiatives on the most uncontentious of issues: childhood obesity and the welfare of military families.
Last week’s remarks opened the door for ideological opponents of Obama to argue that she was up to her old antics. They needed no second invitation to march through it. ...The Hill
Political downside? Nah! There are more than a few Americans who wouldn't mind seeing a switch in the White House between first advisor and president, with Barack Obama enjoying a well-deserved rest in the advisor role.
Congress, however, would get no rest whatsoever.
