Americaâ??s Unhappiest Millionaire

Michelle Obamaâ??s gospel of misery.

By her husbandâ??s logic, Michelle Obama must be a heavily armed xenophobic religious zealot, because boy is she bitter. This C-SPAN video of a speech delivered by Mrs. Obama in North Carolina last Friday is characteristic of her peculiar recent performances on the stump. It is an hour-long talk to supporters who just want something to cheer about, and who get some opportunities at the outset, but then find themselves treated to a profoundly and relentlessly negative vision of American life.

She first offers, as she often does in her appearances, a kind of victimâ??s history of the 2008 Democratic primary race. In Mrs. Obamaâ??s telling, the Obama campaign becomes not an extraordinary mix of strategy and skill, but a sad reflection on the unfairness of American life. The bar, we are told, is always being raised just as her husband is about to reach it. They said he couldnâ??t win because he didnâ??t have an organization. Then he built an organization, so they said he couldnâ??t win because he didnâ??t have money. He raised money, so they said he couldnâ??t win because he couldnâ??t win caucuses. He won caucuses, so they said he couldnâ??t win because he couldnâ??t win primaries.

In the tone and substance of the story is the implication that the fact that this race isnâ??t over is evidence of a profound injustice done to her husband. â??The bar is constantly changing for this man,â?� she tells us. Of course, the only relevant bar in an election is whether you win a majority, and Sen. Obama has yet to win a majority of Democratic delegates. If he did, the race would be over. The barâ??s not moving.

But this tale of woe is really only an introduction to a larger and more sweeping list of bars getting raised just as hard working people are reaching for them. â??So the bar has been shifting and moving in this race,â?� she says, â??but the irony is, the sad irony is, thatâ??s exactly what is happening to most Americans in this country.â?�

In Michelle Obamaâ??s America, everybodyâ??s suffering, no one has time to make any friends, no one earns enough to eke out a living anymore, and the bar of success is always being moved just out of reach. â??Folks are struggling like never before,â?� she says, and in a nation struggling like never before, society cannot stand the strain.

What happens in that nation is that people do become isolated, they do live in a level of division, because see when youâ??re that busy struggling all the time, which most people that you know and I know are, see you donâ??t have time to get to know your neighbors, you donâ??t have time to reach out and have conversations to share stories, in fact you feel very alone in your struggle because you feel somehow it must be your fault that youâ??re struggling that hard, everybody else must be doing ok, I must be doing something wrong, so you hideâ?¦What happens in that kind of nation is that people are afraid. Because when your worldâ??s not right no matter how hard you work, then you become afraid of everyone and everything, because you donâ??t know whose fault it is, why you canâ??t get a handle on life, why you canâ??t secure a better future for your kids.

In such a state of debilitating terror, of course, we can have no hope for the next generation. â??Our fear,â?� Mrs. Obama says, â??is helping us to raise a nation of young doubters, young people who are insular and theyâ??re timid, and they donâ??t try because they already heard us tell them why they canâ??t succeed.â?�

It turns out, also, that it didnâ??t use to be this way. In fact, a great bulk of Mrs. Obamaâ??s speech is devoted to nostalgia for a simpler time â?? an odd approach for a progressive, yet an altogether common one on the left today. She describes a steady downward path from that golden age of distant memory. â??We know where weâ??re living,â?� she tells the slightly confused audience, â??this is where we are right now, and this has been the case for my entire lifetime: that trajectory of hope has gotten more difficult for regular folks.â?�

Her listeners have to wonder exactly what she has in mind by â??regular folksâ?� when Mrs. Obama says that after completing their Ivy League undergraduate and graduate educations, she and her husband â??found ourselves in a position like most young couples, with our PhDs and JDs and MPHs and LMNOPs, all those wonderful degrees, all mired in debt. We had not paid off our loan debt until just a few years ago.â?� But whether you are highly educated multi-millionaires or not, in Michelle Obamaâ??s America, chances are youâ??re afraid, isolated, and hopeless.

Her husband, of course, manages a peppier and more upbeat stump speech, but in fact the same dark view of American life permeates his rhetoric too. Both Obamas seem to think the country is deeply depressed, and in need of a spiritual, economic, and political savior.
Yuval Levin on Michelle Obama on National Review Online

Poor thing...she only makes $320,000 per year. I'm sure you can understand her frustration.:rolleyes:

Have a good one!:s4:

She seems like a negative and bitter person and I don't really care for her. BTW....I owe you an apology. Sincerely.

Well if you were a black person growing up in America wouldnt you be bitter??Im not black or American so i wouldnt know im just asking a question......

Although on a wealthier scale, it really does compare very well to how it is in the US.

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Originally Posted by fishman3811

Well if you were a black person growing up in America wouldnt you be bitter??Im not black or American so i wouldnt know im just asking a question......

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Well it must have been hard being a black person here once. But I have seen many changes in my own lifetime and coming from the deep south Bible Belt....yes I have seen much hypocrisy towards blacks. But bitterness never solved anything. I as an older woman and a feminist....was once myself treated differently and paid different than a MAN! But I am not bitter. I just did things to change it....and America is a better place4 for women now....That is IF YOU ARE NOT A Morman GIRL AND STILL BEING EXPLOITED IN OUR COUNTRY.


But I am thankful for the progress women have made....for my daughter and my granddaughters.
Blacks have made progress. Obama is running....Condi is a fine Secretary of State! Women and minorities have made progress in this country, Is there still work to be done? YES INDEED! but we must be thankful for the progress we have made. No country is perfect, but America is a great place overall. At least in my world.

So to answer your question about bitterness...I myself find bitterness and anger detramental to myself....so I try not to be bitter and angry very long. And I have plenty of reason to be bitter and angry if I wish to wallow in it.... But critical thinking skills help me not do that and remain positive in negative times. Only "you" can make yourself happy anyway!:hippy:

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Originally Posted by fishman3811

Well if you were a black person growing up in America wouldnt you be bitter??

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She grew up in a middle class income family and went to Princeton and Harvard Universities. There's a big difference between being bitter about being held back as opposed to being bitter because your a spoiled brat.

There are MANY people from white, black, asian, hispanic families that wish they had the stable home and opportunities that she has had.

Have a good one!:s4:

Well then she is certainly not a poor black then. Obama was raised by his white mother and white grandparents. His mother was married to two Muslims though. And Obama was in a Muslim school once when he and his mom were in Indonesia. Condi was not exactly underpriveledged either. I think my white childhood was prolly worse than these blacks. But you have to move on anyway and anger and bitterness about the past conditions for blacks don't help any cause anyway. Michelle Obama is just a pissed off black woman. I don't want her for first lady....and certainly not out of racism as I would vote for Condoleeza to be pres.....but she don't want it.

P4B good point about her not having anything to be bitter about coming from a wealthy family.It seems to me that she is just bitter about how her race was treated in your country and she cant let it go.