Tag Archives: Michelle Obama

national news, political news

Harris ‘most qualified’ ever?

Michelle Obama could be excused for getting caught up in the cheering moment as she delivered her speech recently at the Democratic National Convention.

She called DNC nominee Kamala Harris the “most qualified” person ever to seek the presidency. The former first lady basked in the cheering endorsement of the 20,000 or so attendees … and she surely has earned the nation’s admiration as an accomplished first lady and ambassador on behalf of children everywhere.

But … is the 2024 Democratic nominee the “most qualified” presidential candidate? I’ll stick to my own guns and declare that my candidate for most qualified is a Republican, former President George H.W. Bush.

I now will tick off GHW Bush’s pre-presidential experience:

  • US Navy aviator serving in World War II; he was shot down in the Pacific Theater of Operations.
  • Business owner immediately after being discharged from the Navy.
  • Two terms as a congressman representing Houston from 1967 until 1970.
  • CIA director.
  • United Nations Ambassador.
  • Special envoy to the People’s Republic of China.
  • Vice president for two terms during the Reagan administration.

Pretty impressive background, don’t you think?

All that moxey he earned prior to being elected president in 1988 didn’t result in his re-election in 1992. Indeed, I do happen to notice one significant shortcoming in President Bush’s background: no government executive experience, although I could understand an argument that serving as CIA director required plenty of executive management know-how.

Fast-forward to the present day. Vice President Harris does bring plenty of her own skill to the office she is seeking. Prosecuting attorney, San Francisco County district attorney, California attorney general, U.S. senator and vice president.

I also believe her experience will serve her well if she — and we — are able to benefit from her election in November as the next president of the United States.

national news, political news

Ex-POTUS = TFG

You know already that I have offered a bit of a mea culpa for some harsh terms I applied to the MAGA cultists who follow the preachings of the former POTUS who’s running to get his office back.

I also have declared my intention to never mention the MAGA Daddy’s name in this blog.

I have settled on an alternate name for the ex-POTUS. It’s pretty tame, but it does have a nice ring off the old tongue. Thus, I simply will refer to him as The Former Guy, or TFG.

So, those who cheer, whoop, holler and snort at the idiocy that comes from TFG’s pie hole, will thenceforth be called TFG’s followers.

I have received some negative response to my decision to take a relatively high road regarding the TFG cult. Michelle Obama once said, “When they go low, we go high.” I get it, Mme. Former First Lady.

It doesn’t really matter whether this little ol’ North Texas blogger takes the high road or goes into the gutter. I am just going to offer my comments without denigrating the intelligence of those who endorse and embrace the rants of TFG.

I offer all of this understanding what we all know to be true. It is that TFG never has — and likely never will — apologize for the defamatory epithets he has hurled at his foes since the moment he became a politician.

Therefore, I believe I am entitled to say I am a better man than TFG.

Joe Biden, national news, political news

Love the tradition

You at this moment are reading the words of a sucker for pageantry, ceremony and even a little bit of pomp. It was with that bias that I was able to watch the return of a longstanding White House ceremony laced with good humor, good tidings and gratitude.

President and Mrs. Biden invited former President and Mrs. Obama back to the White House today to unveil portraits of the Obamas that will hang in the people’s house alongside — as President Obama noted — “George and Martha.”

OK, this isn’t normally the stuff that would fill a blog such as mine. Except for the proverbial elephant that one could almost hear trudging through the White House room where they unveiled the Obamas’ portraits.

That was the memory of the single term of the man who served as president between the terms of Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Donald J. Trump could have had a ceremony honoring the Obamas. He chose to throw that tradition aside, alongside other traditions that Trump chose to ignore.

No one mentioned Trump’s name in their remarks to the nation as the pictures were unveiled. There was no need. The Obamas and the Bidens all referred to the “tradition” they were honoring, just as the Obamas did when they unveiled portraits of President and Mrs. Bush, and just as the Bushes did when they welcomed back President and Mrs. Clinton for precisely the same ceremony.

I should point out that in both those instances, presidents of one party honored his predecessor from the opposing party, setting aside partisan differences and disagreements over policy to honor their service to the country.

So, now for The Big Question: Would there be such a ceremony in which Donald and Melania Trump come back to the White House for a portrait unveiling? I almost laughed out loud when I typed those words.

Given all the hatred and the violence that preceded the transition from Donald Trump to Joe Biden’s administration … do not hold your breath waiting for the Trumps to return to the White House.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Missing this kind of PDA from POTUS and FLOTUS

I just know I am going to catch grief from critics of this blog … but, what the heck. I am going to say this anyway.

I miss seeing this kind of funny display of affection from the first couple of the United States.

These pictures showed up on my Facebook news feed. I figure they were snapped in January, when Michelle Obama celebrated her 56th birthday. She and her husband were goofing off, exhibiting a good natured public display of affection.

I vaguely recall the occasional stuffed-shirt criticism that came at them when Barack Obama was president and Michelle Obama was first lady.

Their White House successors haven’t shown this kind of public affection for each other that I can remember.

Pictures such as these demonstrate a level of humanity in our elected leader and his spouse. It’s a refreshing sight to see, even from a former POTUS and FLOTUS.

national news

Where’s the wall, Mr. President?

What you see here is a picture of the home where Barack and Michelle Obama live. Donald Trump said the Obamas live behind a 10-foot wall and wondered why if a wall is good enough for the former president and former first lady, why can’t we build a wall along our southern border.

Do you see a wall? Anywhere? Are the Obama hiding behind a wall?

Gosh. I don’t see it.

Which goes to show yet again that the Liar in Chief cannot tell the truth. He must be genetically redisposed to lie even when he doesn’t have to lie.

He lied about his presidential predecessor’s home. He is lying about the dire circumstances he insists require the construction of The Wall. He lies about everything, every single subject he chooses to address.

We are expected to believe a single statement that flies out of the president’s mouth? Nope. Can’t do it.

media news

Fox media analyst needs a reality check . . . seriously!

I get that Howard Kurtz, who once worked for the Washington Post, now is a media analyst for a pro-Donald Trump cable news outlet, the Fox News Channel. Thus, he is inclined to speak more kindly of the president and those close to him than others who tend to look more critically at the Trump Era.

But, c’mon, Howard! Get a grip!

He told Laura Ingraham, another Fox News “contributor,” that first lady Melania Trump has gotten the worst media treatment of any first lady in modern times. He said: “Melania is subjected to a particularly brutal kind of treatment and mockery . . . No other modern first lady has been treated like this.” 

Kurtz cannot be serious. Can he? I guess he can — in his own mind.

Let me offer a couple of examples that I submit would contradict his view of Melania Trump’s media treatment: Michelle Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

I’ll stipulate that first ladies as a rule deserve some cushion from the pounding that the media deliver to their husbands. To that extent, Melania Trump is no different from any of her predecessors.

However, do I really need to remind Kurtz of the hideous racially tinged, defamatory insults that those on the right hurled at Michelle Obama during her eight years as first lady? And, yes, the media reported it. I do not want to restate some of the monstrous epithets she endured. You know what they are. Michelle Obama damn sure does.

As for Hillary Clinton, has Kurtz forgotten how the media reported on the far right’s accusations that Hillary and Bill Clinton were actually living as husband and wife, or that the two of them actually ordered the murder of their political opponents in the years prior to President Clinton’s election in 1992?

Have the media gone that far in their treatment of Melania Trump?

I do not believe that is the case. Thus, Howard Kurtz needs to re-calibrate his media-analyst antennae. Dial it back, Howie, on your criticism of the media as it relates to Donald and Melania Trump.

national news

Just take a moment and ponder this wonderful image

I have next to nothing to add to this picture that I’ve posted on High Plains Blogger.

The woman is former first lady Michelle Obama. The man in the wheelchair is the late President George H.W. Bush.

Mrs. Obama wanted to share it with the world via Instagram. I saw it and was struck by the warmth emanating from it, not to mention the seeming joy in Mrs. Obama’s face as she received the greeting from the 41st president of the United States.

I want to cherish this image. Thus, I want to share it here.

I have nothing more to add. Oh, my.

national news

Former first lady takes ‘birther’ lie quite personally

To be honest, I never gave a thought to the view expressed by former first lady Michelle Obama regarding the hideous lie fomented by her husband’s successor as president of the United States.

Donald J. Trump for years kept repeating the lie that Barack Obama was born outside the United States and, thus, was not qualified to seek the presidency let alone serve as president. I viewed the lie from the outside, considering it to be a racist rant intended to demonize the first African-American ever elected to the presidency.

Trump eventually tossed out a throwaway line at the end of another set of remarks that the president “was born in the United States.” Then he returned later to the casting of doubt over the truth of Obama’s place of birth.

Now the former first lady has written in her memoir “Becoming” that she cannot “forgive” Trump because, in her view, he put her family in potential danger from “wingnuts and kooks” who might pick up a loaded gun and head to Washington to harm the Obamas’ two daughters.

Michelle Obama’s criticism of Donald Trump will resonate with millions of Americans. It, of course, will sound hollow to millions of others, those who subscribe to Trump’s idiotic lie.

As for Donald Trump himself, I have no doubt at all — none whatsoever — that Michelle Obama’s criticism has zoomed straight through is vacuous skull.

He doesn’t give a damn!

national news

What in the world is happening to us?

The authorities say they have recovered seven “devices,” some of them identified as “live” bombs, from assorted targets in Washington and New York.

I admit to getting a bit ahead of myself in an earlier blog post, as it was reported initially that one of the devices was meant to be delivered to the White House. The Secret Service says no such explosive was recovered.

That said, the White House has issued a strong statement condemning the act of what it called “cowards” who have sent the devices.

That leaves us to look at those who had been targeted: Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack and Michelle Obama, former CIA director John Brennan, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, CNN’s Nw York offices, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, left-wing mega political donor George Soros.

What do these folks and institutions have in common? They all have (a) criticized the president or (b) been targets of the president’s criticism.

Hmm. Coincidence? I fear not.

The country wants a quick resolution in the form of an arrest of the suspect or suspects responsible for this frightening act of terror.

This must be said as well: If the targets’ political similarity have anything to do with the sending of these explosive devices, then we have entered a whole new age of recrimination and hatred.

It has to stop. As Gov. Cuomo stated earlier today, any attempt to restore civility in our public discourse “must come from the top.”

International news

Donald Trump: hardly a master of protocol

Social media are going nuts … yet again.

This time it’s the president of the United States apparently committing a no-no by walking in front of Her Majesty the Queen of England while reviewing troops at Windsor Castle.

Donald Trump momentarily violated an ancient protocol by walking ahead of Queen Elizabeth II, prompting social media in Britain to go a good bit ballistic.

I am of two minds on this one.

First, the president is not a subject of the queen. That score was settled in 1781 when Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Va., ending the American Revolution. Moreover, the president is a head of state, just as her majesty is a head of state. They are peers.

However, and this is critical, the president is treading on QE 2’s turf. He is the guest in her country. Thus, it would seem quite appropriate for the visiting dignitary to honor the traditions followed by the host country. One of them is that no one on Earth walks ahead of the ruling monarch, particularly while she is reviewing the troops in a formal ceremony.

I remember the time former first lady Michelle Obama put her hand on the queen’s back while greeting her. Social media went nuts then, too. How dare this commoner dare to touch her majesty? Well, that one blew over quickly.

I guess this one will, too.

Here’s how CNN reported it.

Still, Mr. President, you need to listen carefully to what your protocol staff tells you about certain matters. Let the queen show you the way, sir.

And whatever you do, Mr. President, don’t ever ask the queen about the contents of her purse.