For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.
When I heard Michelle Obama speak those words and saw how she said them, it blew my mind. It was just how I felt too! It was wonderful.
So many people in public life seem like car salesmen: they smile too much and they do not call a spade a spade. They do not say what is in their hearts, they do not say what they see with their own two eyes. Michelle Obama does. That makes her beautiful.
She is the only one in this stage show that we call the 2008 election who seems like someone I might know – or care to know. Despite all her money and despite all her education, she is down to earth and honest. She is the opposite of Hillary Clinton. And, as much as I like her husband, he is too busy trying to look like he belongs on Mount Rushmore. (Is there room?)
Later that day Cindy McCain said this:
I have and always will be proud of my country.
Well, duh: she is rich and white. She does not know the half of what goes on in America – or what is done in its name overseas. Her words show it. Has anyone told her about Abu Ghraib? Or Katrina? Is she proud of that? And how would she feel about America if she had to give up her money and her white skin? Or if she had to live as an Arab in the West Bank? Would she still be able to say all ten words about America? Not just proud, but always proud?
People jump on Michelle Obama, but she is just saying what anyone would say who has a brain that is turned on, eyes that are open and a mouth set to honest. Well, at least any black person with an Ivy League education who grew up in a place like the South Side of Chicago. And plenty of other people too. I do not think Michelle and I are alone on this one.
But what about the fall of communism? What about her own rise from low beginnings? I doubt she was thinking about those things when she said it: she was talking about the country not about herself or the world.
Does Michelle Obama love her country? Of course she does. Only someone who loves America would talk about it like that. My wife, for example, is not always proud of what I do and when I screw up she tells me straight out. Does that mean she does not love me? To the contrary.
But why should a woman who has so much be so bitter, as they say? Because she is honest. Because sees with her own two eyes. Because she cares.
Some may call her angry or bitter, but to me she is beautiful. Just the way she is.
– Abagond, 2008.
Update (2019): Unfortunately this was like the last honest thing she said. Both she and Barack Obama sold out.
See also:
- darkies – where I use Michelle Obama as an example of an Ungrateful Darky
- Michelle Obama
- CIndy McCain: Always proud of her country
- James Baldwin on deluded white people
- black patriotism
- 2008 election
- The Arab world
- Apple-pie Americ
Abagond 
Michelle Obama is a wonderful woman and because media is so good at brainwashing and covering up, hearing how other people feel, it is sometimes a shock to the system.
And, as much as I like her husband, he is too busy trying to look like he belongs on Mount Rushmore. (Is there room?)
I don’t quite agree with this statement, Barack Obama is a politician, he is trying to get elected, and can only make real changes when he gets into the White House. He is trying to be above all the rubbish that has been before, and I am sure the media is digging and will dig any dirt on him and even when they don’t find it, they would make it up, again him winning the nomination is a big big shock to a lot of people.
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No, I understand what he is doing. He has built up this persona, the kind that kings and great presidents have. That Mount Rushmore thing. Which is probably necessary to break through all the thinking whites have about black men that goes back to slave days. More than for winning the election he will need it when he is president of a country that is mostly white.
If whites cannot respect him it will never work. The true power in the country will shift to the vice president or someone in his cabinet. He will be a figurehead at best.
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Michelle Obama is my favorite political persons, period. I believe she, more than her husband, is a true bellwether. She gives me hope.
Interesting piece on Michelle here:
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/06/24/michelle_obama/index.html
I like this line: “The Los Angeles Times, in covering a campaign speech Michelle made to working-class blacks last year, wondered how on earth the wealthy Obamas could relate to that demographic. (Funny, I don’t remember anyone questioning how former presidential candidate and millionaire John Edwards could relate to poor whites.)”
Note that this piece is written by Erin Aubry Kaplan. Ms. Kaplan has an interesting backstory, here:
http://archive.salon.com/mwt/feature/2001/02/14/love_marriage/index.html
For those with time to search, there are related articles elsewhere in Salon, and also in the archives of the LA Weekly, where Ms. Kaplan, nee Aubrey, used to be a regular columnist. Erin blogs here:
http://www.3baas.com/newmedia.php
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I love Michelle Obama.
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I like Michelle’s style, the whole package. I hope she doesn’t change anything about her.
She would make an excellent First Lady.
Steph
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Yes, I hope she stays just as she is!
Blanc2: thanks for those links. They look pretty good.
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Blanc2: Wow, that was a great article by Erin Aubrey Kaplan. The perfect suggestion.
It was like she was writing the same post but did it in a completely different way. She framed Michelle Obama in terms of American history and how whites see her, while I was much more absolute and moral about it: truth against lies and blindness.
She makes me seem so harsh!
On the other hand, what I called “eyes that are open and a mouth set to honest” she calls “the black story”. As if “the white story” is no worse or better – something I just cannot agree with: the white story is full of self-serving lies while the black story, although hardly perfect, is far more truthful.
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Funny, I don’t remember anyone questioning how former presidential candidate and millionaire John Edwards could relate to poor whites.
Many did, actually.
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Or if she had to live as an Arab in the West Bank?
Who expects a West Bank Arab to be proud of America? Is that how MRO sees herself, as a hostile alien in the enemy country?
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My point was that it is easy for Cindy McCain to be “always proud” of her country because her experience of it is not particularly broad.
If Cindy McCain had grown up black in the South Side of Chicago, if she ever had to live in a ghetto year after year, she would not be so quick with such an utterly brainless statement.
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nonserviam: I think the same applies to you. It is your lack of experience that makes you talk that way (not so much here but elsewhere, like where you say Michelle feels entitled or that America is merit-based).
If tomorrow morning you woke up with black skin then inside of six months you would stop talking like you do.
I had a friend who used to talk just like you, but not any more. Unlike you he is not white but Korean-American.
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You\’re trying to make a case (which I\’m not buying) that Michelle O has good reasons to hate America. But that is missing a larger point. Whether her hatred is justified or not, she still doesn\’t belong in the White House.
Which is a moot point, thanks to David Axelrod\’s brilliant sales job.
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I am white, but I am a minority in a few other respects.
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I doubt very much that Michelle hates America. I tried to make that very point in this post.
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How did I miss this? Excellent!
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As you can see, Michelle has thrived as First Lady – by far the best since Eleanor R. I’m so proud of her honestly and she seems to truly love all people. History will be kinder to her than her present-day detractors.
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For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.
When I heard Michelle Obama speak those words and saw how she said them, it blew my mind. It was just how I felt too! It was wonderful.
These people [Obamas] simply presented (in a passive indirect manner) their dark skins as a Trojan Horse to con politically naive-starry eyed American blacks and other Americans. It is as simple as that.
It isn’t hindsight which provides that view. Just breathing and thinking back at the time ought to have been enough.
Geeeeezz!!!
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Update: Unfortunately this was like the last honest thing she said. Both she and Barack Obama sold out.
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