Tag Archives: Michelle Obama

national news

Huckabee turns into a goofball

Honest to goodness, I never thought of Mike Huckabee as a right-wing goofball — until just a couple of days ago.

Maybe I missed the warning signs. He went wildly off the rails, though, with some kind of weird critique of President and Mrs. Obama’s parenting skills. Former President Carter came to the Obamas’ defense. Huckabee, who left his job at Fox News to explore another run for the Republican presidential nomination, needs an intervention … maybe.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/jimmy-carter-defends-obamas-parenting-wake-huckabee-attack

The former Arkansas governor and one-time Baptist preacher said the Obamas deserve criticism because — hold on, now — they let their daughters listen to Beyoncé. President Carter, who also has some credibility as a man of deep religious faith, said the “president is doing a good job” raising his daughters in the fish-bowl environment in which the family is living.

The first daughters, Malia and Sasha, are being poisoned by their exposure to Beyoncé’s raunchy lyrics and her dance moves, which Huckabee says are more appropriate “in the bedroom.”

Huck did offer a tepid disclaimer to the blistering he gave the first couple when he said they are “are excellent and exemplary parents in many ways.” Ah yes, “in many ways.”

That’s like saying, “I love that death, but …” Without fail, whatever comes after the word “but” is going to drop the hammer with a negative assertion of some sort.

The Obama daughters are growing up to be fine young women, just as the Bush twins — Barbara and Jenna — have done and just as virtually all children who come of age while living in the White House have done.

Stick to public policy, Rev. Huckabee, particularly if you’re going to run for president of the United States of America — again.

 

national news

Racism, or mistaken identity?

1 Comment

Take a look at the picture of first lady Michelle Obama attached to this blog post.

It shows her shopping at Target in 2011. She’s dressed casually, with a ball cap and sunglasses. The first lady said during a “highly publicized” shopping excursion, the only person who talked to her was a woman who asked her to take something off a shelf.

The first lady used that encounter as an example of the racism she and her husband, the president, have experienced over many years.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/12/17/michelle-obama-i-was-asked-to-get-something-off-the-shelf-at-target/

I guess my confusion is rooted in a single question: Would I have recognized this woman as the first lady of the United States had I seen her pushing a shopping cart through a mid-level department store?

I’m not so sure.

The only giveaway that she is a very important person would be the presence of security personnel wearing ear pieces, dark suits and perhaps handguns bulging from the side of their jackets.

Yeah, that would tip me off that she’s the first lady.

There can be zero doubt that President and Mrs. Obama have felt slights — large and small — growing up in the United States. They are laying some of that experience out in a lengthy People magazine interview. It is wrong for it to have happened in any context … ever!

However, I am a bit puzzled by the example cited by the first lady.

The only thing I can figure is that the Secret Service agents were keeping a considerable distance away when the woman asked the first lady for some help.

Am I wrong to think this?

 

local news, national news, political news, State news

Bill Clinton helps more than Michelle Obama? Umm, yes

The headline over Dallas Morning News blogger Rodger Jones’s post asks: Does Bill Clinton help Van de Putte more than Michelle Obama helps Wendy Davis?

Well, duh? Do ya think?

http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/2014/10/does-bill-clinton-helps-van-de-putte-more-than-michelle-obama-helps-wendy-davis.html/

The 42nd president has endorsed Democratic lieutenant nominee Leticia Van de Putte. Meanwhile, first lady Michelle Obama has recorded a radio ad for another Democrat, the nominee for governor, Wendy Davis.

With all due respect to the first lady, who I consider to be profoundly successful in her role, she ain’t no Bill Clinton.

President Clinton is a genuine political rock star. He’s the 800-pound gorilla in any political setting imaginable. He can walk into deeply red Republican regions — as he did in 2008 when he campaigned in Amarillo for his wife’s bid to become president — and pack ’em in.

Jones refers to Clinton as “Bubba,” and his endorsement amounts to a “seal of approval.”

Van de Putte will need all the help she can get in her uphill fight against Republican nominee — and fellow state senator — Dan Patrick. Clinton’s standing as the leading Democrat in the nation — yes, even more than the man who now occupies his old office in the White House — gives any candidate who receives his blessing maximum oomph.

It’s an astonishing comeback for the second president ever to be impeached. The Senate acquitted him of those politically motivated charges relating to his misbehavior in the White House. It didn’t take long at all for the president to regain his standing among many Americans.

And in the 13 years since his leaving office, that standing has grown almost beyond all recognition.

Will his endorsement put Van de Putte over the top? I doubt it. Still, she isn’t going to erase this “seal of approval.”

Uncategorized

Democrats asking to unleash Michelle for campaign

2 Comments

Not long after he was elected in 2008, I mentioned to friends and family that I thought Barack Obama’s secret weapon would be his wife, Michelle.

She had as much charisma, maybe more smarts and at least as much political skill as her husband. You can choose to believe I said as much, or you can choose to believe I’m making this up. Whatever. It’s true and I’m sticking to my guns on that one.

Why not put her to work?

http://online.wsj.com/articles/democrats-urge-michelle-obama-to-hit-the-trail-1411342576?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

It turns out Democrats around the country are beginning to clamor for the first lady to hit the campaign trail on behalf of beleaguered candidates. She’d be better at drumming up support than her husband, whose poll numbers continue to languish in the low to mid-40 percent range.

Michelle Obama’s poll numbers? They’re a lot higher than her husband’s. That’s for certain.

The Democrats are clinging to a thin hope of retaining control of the U.S. Senate. Recent polls in North Carolina and Alaska suggest the Democrats might be turning the tide. And the Democrats got an unexpected break in, of all places, Kansas, where the Democratic Senate candidate dropped out, paving the way for an independent who likely will side with Democrats to beat the Republican incumbent.

So, why unleash the first lady in those states where Democrats have a puncher’s chance of holding on?

“She just tells a different story, because she’s not a politician and she’s not an elected official,” said a Democratic official in New Hampshire, where Sen. Jean Shaheen is locked in a tough fight against former Massachusetts Republican Sen. Scott Brown, who recently moved to New Hampshire to run against the Democratic incumbent.

Bring it, Michelle.

Uncategorized

Fox rolls out another blowhard

Keith Ablow isn’t looking at the same person many of the rest of us are seeing.

Ablow is a Fox News Channel commentator. He’s a shrink who has declared that first lady Michelle Obama needs to “drop a few” pounds if she is going to be a credible spokeswoman for healthy eating.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/fox-keith-ablow-michelle-obama-109985.html?hp=l20

OK. Let’s see here. The woman I have watched functioning as first lady of the United States looks pretty damn fit. She’s also, shall we say, easy on the eyes.

Michelle Obama also is an accomplished lawyer and an individual who speaks fervently and eloquently on behalf of her husband … which, of course, shouldn’t surprise anyone.

Ablow popped off on a Fox talk show and was taken to task immediately by some of his cohorts on the program. He didn’t back down. He’s standing by his comment that the first lady isn’t fit — pun intended — to lead the discussion on childhood nutrition.

Well, it’s no use trying to pick apart the comments of someone who — I’m supposing — doesn’t support much of anything that comes out of the Obama White House, given that he’s a Fox News Channel talking head/gasbag.

He’s taking on the first lady, whose message — which has been to encourage healthier food choices in public schools — has been resonating with most Americans already and according to medical studies has produced tangible results by reducing childhood obesity.

Keep up the good work, Mrs. Obama. Never mind the musings of a goofy psychiatrist.

Uncategorized

Food fight erupts in Congress

There likely can be no greater example of the current political pettiness infecting Congress than the fight that’s erupting over first lady Michelle Obama’s desire to have our children eat healthier meals in school.

http://www.msnbc.com/politicsnation/watch/celeb-chef-bashes-gop-food-plan-272409155677

Congressional Republicans want to scale back Mrs. Obama’s healthy-eating program. They contend, along with their activist friends, that the first lady is trying to force feed healthy eating habits in our public schools, making school administrators adhere to silly dietary rules.

The first lady has taken an uncharacteristically (for her) stance in response to the criticism. She’s fighting back.

She’s noting that childhood obesity has begun to decline in the country. Children’s healthier school meals are having a tangible — and positive — impact on their health.

And somehow this is seen as a bad thing?

I’ll need some help understand this one, folks.

Congressional Republicans want to roll back the standards the government has enacted for our kids. The first lady says she’s offended as a mother and as an American. She blasts Republicans for “playing politics with our nation’s children.”

Is there no end, or limit, to this political petulance?

Uncategorized

VA mess … now there's a scandal

Internal Revenue Service vetting of conservative political action groups’ claims of tax exempt status?

Pffft. Big deal.

Benghazi … Shmenghazi.

Sure, it’s a bigger deal, but it doesn’t rise to the level of “scandal.”

The Department of Veterans Affairs and allegations that it delayed veterans’ health care so long that vets actually died while waiting? Now that is a hyper-serious matter that needs to be resolved thoroughly.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/eric-shinseki-senate-scandal-veterans-affairs-treatment-delays-106715.html?hp=l6

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki — a Vietnam War combat veteran and a former Army chief of staff — says he is “personally angered and saddened” by the allegations. He’d better be. Shinseki is now fighting to keep his job after the American Legion — in a rare statement of outrage — called for his resignation in light of the growing scandal.

At issue is the death of at least 40 veterans who were awaiting health care at the Phoenix, Ariz., VA hospital. Many of the vets’ names were on a secret waiting list that reportedly was designed to conceal lengthy waits that didn’t meet VA standards.

As a veteran myself who a year ago enrolled as a Veterans Administration patient at the hospital here in Amarillo, I have a number of concerns. The most notable of those concerns is whether such delays are being orchestrated at the Thomas Creek VA Medical Center in the city where I live. There was a time I wouldn’t have dared ask that question out loud, but given what has happened in Phoenix, is it possible that other such disgraceful activities are occurring across the Department of Veterans Affairs’ vast health care network?

The situation at the VA clearly is FUBAR, which in military parlance means — and this is the cleaned-up version — “fouled up beyond all recognition.”

President and Mrs. Obama have made veterans care a signature issue as the administration winds down the Afghanistan War, having already ended U.S. involvement in the Iraq War. Michelle Obama, along with Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Biden, have been champions for the cause of ensuring that our veterans receive the best health care possible.

One only can imagine what the response to this mess has been inside the West Wing of the White House, not to mention in the living quarters upstairs. I’m hoping the president has tossed some furniture around and is demanding answers to what has happened in Phoenix.

Gen. Shinseki, you have some serious explaining to do.

Uncategorized

Right-wing media go fishing for anti-Obama grist

It long has been clear that the right-wing mainstream media cannot find enough material with which to batter their foes in the White House.

This item came to light this afternoon on the Fox News Channel.

Fox News talking heads were critical of — get this — the calorie count of the meal served at the White House state dinner that President and Mrs. Obama hosted in honor of visiting French President Francois Hollande.

They were yapping that the meal contained 2,500 calories. I didn’t hear precisely what they served at the White House, but I’m quite sure it was mighty sumptuous.

Why target the meal?

Well, first lady Michelle Obama has taken up the cause of healthy eating. She’s counseled parents about how to serve healthier food to their children, campaigned for schools to quit serving carbonated soda and fatty food and encouraged other institutions to dispense with “junk food” in favor of fruit and vegetables.

The Obamas’ critics on the right, of course, have accused the first lady of seeking to make it “illegal” to serve fatty food, which she has not done.

Then the White House chef turns out some gaudy meal for the Obamas to serve at the White House, which according to the right-wing mainstream media amounts to evidence of hypocrisy.

Allow me to add that the president noted in his State of the Union speech recently that his wife’s campaign to fight childhood obesity is working. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports an actual decline in the number of obese children since 2009.

So, let the first couple indulge a little for a visiting head of state.

They can get back on their own healthy-eating routine tomorrow.

Uncategorized

SOTU ends with emotions running high

The end of President Obama’s State of the Union speech all but wiped out what he had said earlier.

It was near the conclusion of his 65-minute speech that the president introduced the nation to Army Sergeant First Class Cory Remsburg, a grievously wounded Ranger who was nearly killed during his 10th deployment in Afghanistan.

As the columnist Mark Shields noted on PBS immediately after the speech ended, Remsburg drew the “longest standing ovation I’ve ever heard” at a State of the Union speech.

Indeed, Remsburg’s presence reminds us of the extreme hardship the entire nation has endured while fighting the longest war in its history.

SFC Remsburg was wounded when a roadside bomb exploded. He was comatose for months. He has learned to stand and speak again. Remsburg has fought back against impossible odds.

All the other topics the president raised during his speech seemed to fade into the background during the two-minute ovation.

To be honest, it was a thrilling moment to see Remsburg standing between his father and first lady Michelle Obama. And I am pretty sure I saw some moisture in the first lady’s eyes as she joined the nation in applauding this valiant wounded warrior.

I take heart in knowing I wasn’t the only American who was swallowing hard at that moment.