America’s Unhappiest Black Millionaire: Michelle Obama’s gospel of misery

[megimoo]

By her husband’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.
snip

In Michelle Obama’s America, everybody’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€œFolks are struggling like never before,” she says, and in a nation struggling like never before, society cannot stand the strain.
snip
Her listeners have to wonder exactly what she has in mind by “regular folks” when Mrs. Obama says that after completing their Ivy League undergraduate and graduate educations, she and her husband “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.” But whether you are highly educated multi-millionaires or not, in Michelle Obama’s America, chances are you’re afraid, isolated, and hopeless,She employs an all-female staff of aides for her political role just like Hillary .

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.


http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OWI1ZGE5NDY4ZjY0YzZhZjE0NGY0Zjg4Yjc3NmVjZTI=

[Wretched Excess]

I am truly tired of hearing about their student loans.  they are both ivy league educated lawyers.  the got a $200K a year raise as public relations director at a hospital (a job for which she has no training, no education, and no background) after her husband was elected to the senate.

she and Baroque Obama are scamming the system just like most of the other politicians in the country.  all the other politicians just aren't staggering hypocrites about it.

 

[jendf]

Both Obamas seem to think the country is deeply depressed, and in need of a spiritual, economic, and political savior.

They need the country deeply depressed so the gubmint can swoop in and save us. Rush Limbaugh always harps on this point. Bad news for America is good news for the Democrats.

Senator Obama, I already have a savior. I don't need a second one.

[Wretched Excess]

Both Obamas seem to think the country is deeply depressed, and in need of a spiritual, economic, and political savior.

They need the country deeply depressed so the gubmint can swoop in and save us. Rush Limbaugh always harps on this point. Bad news for America is good news for the Democrats.

Senator Obama, I already have a savior. I don't need a second one.

it's getting easier and easier to convince the american public that the world is ending (irrespective of their actual condition), and that someone owes them something.  we are rapidly becoming the most childish culture on earth.

[DixieBelle]

The Joy of Despair rears its ugly head once again. Sigh.

[Wretched Excess]

The Joy of Despair rears its ugly head once again. Sigh.

well, I am reading that the financial crisis has bottomed out, that the job market is picking up, and things are generally poised to go nowhere but up.

I am sure president obama will appreciate this auspicious economic timing when the MSM suddenly realizes that everything is fixed . . . the day after he is elected.

[DixieBelle]

Of course! He'll claim that when the sun rises on the day after he's elected, it was because of the "hope" and "change" demanded by the American people. *eyeroll*

[Wretched Excess]

Of course! He'll claim that when the sun rises on the day after he's elected, it was because of the "hope" and "change" demanded by the American people. *eyeroll*

we will all wake up unified and healed.  our incomes will be confiscated and sent to various donors, special interests groups, government agencies, the UN, and several foreign countries as part of his $850 million tax theft, but by golly we'll be healed from the wound of any personal success that we may have managed in our lives, and unified by nationwide poverty.

we will all be the same, which was pretty much the whole idea in the first place.

 

[DixieBelle]

Oh gee, I can't wait! My head hurts....

[phillygirl]

Does anybody know how much their student loan debt was?

[DixieBelle]

I have no idea. I can't find anything specific online. I did find this - http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MmEyN2RkNzcwYzgyZDY2MDBiY2U5MjJlZGMwNDM2ODg=

As she has many times in the past, Mrs. Obama complains about the lasting burden of student loans dating from her days at Princeton and Harvard Law School. She talks about people who end up taking years and years, until middle age, to pay off their debts. “The salaries don’t keep up with the cost of paying off the debt, so you’re in your 40s, still paying off your debt at a time when you have to save for your kids,” she says.

“Barack and I were in that position,” she continues. “The only reason we’re not in that position is that Barack wrote two best-selling books… It was like Jack and his magic beans. But up until a few years ago, we were struggling to figure out how we would save for our kids.” A former attorney with the white-shoe Chicago firm of Sidley & Austin, Obama explains that she and her husband made the choice to give up lucrative jobs in favor of community service. “We left corporate America, which is a lot of what we’re asking young people to do,” she tells the women. “Don’t go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we’re encouraging our young people to do that. But if you make that choice, as we did, to move out of the money-making industry into the helping industry, then your salaries respond.” Faced with that reality, she adds, “many of our bright stars are going into corporate law or hedge-fund management.”

What she doesn’t mention is that the helping industry has treated her pretty well. In 2006, the Chicago Tribune reported that Mrs. Obama’s compensation at the University of Chicago Hospital, where she is a vice president for community affairs, jumped from $121,910 in 2004, just before her husband was elected to the Senate, to $316,962 in 2005, just after he took office. And that does not count the money Mrs. Obama receives from serving on corporate boards. She would have been O.K. even without Jack’s magic beans.

[Wretched Excess]

Does anybody know how much their student loan debt was?

now, there is a relevant question.  they keep on referring  to it, and the fact that they had their ObamaBloomers in a knot because they were still paying them off when they were in their 40's, but I have never read encountered an actual amount.

[phillygirl]

I find it odd that they were still paying off their loans while in their 40's.  They must have consolidated the debt and chosen a longer period of time within which to pay them off.  Mine were paid within 7 years. I am assuming they both graduated from law school at around age 25 or 26. Why were they paying them over 20 years?

[Wretched Excess]

I find it odd that they were still paying off their loans while in their 40's.  They must have consolidated the debt and chosen a longer period of time within which to pay them off.  Mine were paid within 7 years. I am assuming they both graduated from law school at around age 25 or 26. Why were they paying them over 20 years?

actually, I went back to read what they said more closely.  all that The MichelleStar! said about she and her husband personally was, "when was there a president that had just paid off their student loans a few years ago" (very tightly paraphrased), but then she would always go on to bemoan the fact that the country was full of people in their forties that are still paying off their student loans.

I fell for her verbal light of hand.

[DixieBelle]

^that's what they are counting on to win this. Sigh.

[phillygirl]

I find it odd that they were still paying off their loans while in their 40's.  They must have consolidated the debt and chosen a longer period of time within which to pay them off.  Mine were paid within 7 years. I am assuming they both graduated from law school at around age 25 or 26. Why were they paying them over 20 years?

actually, I went back to read what they said more closely.  all that The MichelleStar! said about she and her husband personally was, "when was there a president that had just paid off their student loans a few years ago" (very tightly paraphrased), but then she would always go on to bemoan the fact that the country was full of people in their forties that are still paying off their student loans.

I fell for her verbal light of hand.

As she has many times in the past, Mrs. Obama complains about the lasting burden of student loans dating from her days at Princeton and Harvard Law School. She talks about people who end up taking years and years, until middle age, to pay off their debts. “The salaries don’t keep up with the cost of paying off the debt, so you’re in your 40s, still paying off your debt at a time when you have to save for your kids,” she says.

“Barack and I were in that position,” she continues. “The only reason we’re not in that position is that Barack wrote two best-selling books… It was like Jack and his magic beans. But up until a few years ago, we were struggling to figure out how we would save for our kids.”

Could be read either way. 

But I would like to know if they received scholarships or grants for their educations.

[DixieBelle]

^I think we all would like to know.

[Willow]

Both Obamas seem to think the country is deeply depressed, and in need of a spiritual, economic, and political savior.

They need the country deeply depressed so the gubmint can swoop in and save us. Rush Limbaugh always harps on this point. Bad news for America is good news for the Democrats.

Senator Obama, I already have a savior. I don't need a second one.

you hit the nail on the head, liberals need despair and depression, I was listening to radio the other day and heard that in general conservatives are much happier people.

[Willow]

she keeps twitching her nose and changing her stance, reminds me of a prizefighter! 

[Wretched Excess]

I find it odd that they were still paying off their loans while in their 40's.  They must have consolidated the debt and chosen a longer period of time within which to pay them off.  Mine were paid within 7 years. I am assuming they both graduated from law school at around age 25 or 26. Why were they paying them over 20 years?

actually, I went back to read what they said more closely.  all that The MichelleStar! said about she and her husband personally was, "when was there a president that had just paid off their student loans a few years ago" (very tightly paraphrased), but then she would always go on to bemoan the fact that the country was full of people in their forties that are still paying off their student loans.

I fell for her verbal light of hand.

As she has many times in the past, Mrs. Obama complains about the lasting burden of student loans dating from her days at Princeton and Harvard Law School. She talks about people who end up taking years and years, until middle age, to pay off their debts. “The salaries don’t keep up with the cost of paying off the debt, so you’re in your 40s, still paying off your debt at a time when you have to save for your kids,” she says.

“Barack and I were in that position,” she continues. “The only reason we’re not in that position is that Barack wrote two best-selling books… It was like Jack and his magic beans. But up until a few years ago, we were struggling to figure out how we would save for our kids.”

Could be read either way. 

But I would like to know if they received scholarships or grants for their educations.

that occurred to me just now, too.  I can't find anything about any of it.

[Wretched Excess]

well, the default rate on student loans is pretty high.  maybe he didn't bother to pay them off in the first place until he ran for public office.

[Wretched Excess]

is the interest on student loans deductible?  I can't find anything on his tax returns (going back to 2000), but I have only gotten as far back as 2005.

[DixieBelle]

yes, interest is deductable but with certain conditions IIRC. I was able to deduct for a certain number of years. It's been a while. It's also not hard to figure out for someone like me who didn't have an accountant doing her taxes.

[DixieBelle]

Another great analysis of TheMichelleStar!
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives2/2008/05/020456.php

This past Friday Michelle Obama gave essentially the same stump speech in Charlotte, North Carolina that she had given the week earlier in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Based on the stump speech, Yuval Levin calls Mrs. Obama "The unhappiest millionaire." Levin's NRO column carries a link to the C-SPAN video of Mrs. Obama's North Carolina speech. It is well worth watching.

Levin characterizes the pervasive themes of Mrs. Obama's stump speech as the "gospel of bitterness." Levin finds Barack Obama to be preaching a similar gospel, albeit one that benefits from "a peppier and more upbeat stump speech[.]" Senator Obama's enormous political skills make it much more difficult to discern the somewhat repulsive views and attitudes that are nakedly on display in Mrs. Obama's stump speech.

Michelle Obama seethes with bitterness. While she preaches the gospel according to Barack, she wears resentment and bitterness on her sleeve. It is therefore painful to listen to her. She's apparently even still angry about her SAT scores. She didn't test well in school, she explains. Somehow, she has overcome.

Mrs. Obama seeks to convey convey the impression -- she expands on the theme at great length -- that Senator Obama's campaign is, to borrow Joe McCarthy's formulation, the victim of "a conspiracy so immense..." It is not clear whether the Obama campaign can overcome the power of these sinister forces.

According to Mrs. Obama, the Obama campaign has been constrained by nameless forces constantly changing the rules of the game and thereby preventing Senator Obama from securing the nomination. Who are "they"? Mrs. Obama says just enough about these nameless forces for us to infer that "they" include the Clintons and their supporters. "They" seem also (incredibly) to include the mainstream media. These nameless forces have approximately the same specificity as the names on Joe McCarthy's list.

In her North Carolina speech Mrs. Obama reiterates the condescending political sociology that she elaborated in her Fort Wayne remarks and that Barack Obama preached at his closed-door fundraiser with the San Francisco Democrats. Given the modesty of her and her husband's family backgrounds, Mrs. Obama denies that she or her husband could be elitists.

Yet Mrs. Obama's political sociology comfortably fits the What's the Matter With Kansas? school of thought held by the Demoratic Party's liberal elite. Indeed, it was an elite group of wealthy San Francisco Democrats to whom Barack Obama was preaching the gospel of bitterness in San Francisco.

Mrs. Obama mocks the notion that she and her husband are elitists. She implicitly asserts that only those born to wealth are capable of looking down their noses at their fellow citizens. She does not think highly of those of us who want to be left alone by advocates of the administrative welfare state such as she and her husband. Moreover, she finds us guilty of making our children the victims of our fears. We are raising "young doubters." (I confess!)

But aren't those in her audience afraid of the sinister forces struggling to hold the Obamas down? Apparently not any more than she is. If her remarks were to be believed, they would by themselves instill deep fears. Her audience seems to understand that her impassioned whining is not to be taken seriously.

She says that she and Barack were born to parents of modest means, not with "silver spoons" in their mouths. Nobody knows the trouble they've seen. The burden of paying for her undergraduate education at Princeton and her law school education at Harvard has scarred her. It remains a motif of her stump speech. No one is accorded a chance to ask her if she thought about attending the University of Illinois, or if she's grateful for any of the financial assistance that facilitated her and her husband's attendance at the finest institutions of higher learning in the United States.

It appears that no one in the Obama campaign has the nerve to speak frankly with Mrs. Obama about how her stump speech might be improved. She could benefit from constructive criticism, because she is woefully deficient in the ability to see herself as others see her. She has just enough self-awareness to omit her admonition to the Los Angeles disciples of Barack:

Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.
As I said last week about Mrs. Obama's Fort Wayne remarks: As long as Senator Obama won't require us to listen to the missus, I might be willing to settle for the compulsory mental readjustments.

PAUL adds: So Michelle Obama didn't do very well on her SATs but was admitted to Princeton? No wonder she's sore.

One of the problems with lowering the bar pursuant to "affirmative action" is that placing the bar back where it was requires raising it.

[megimoo]

By her husband’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.
snip

In Michelle Obama’s America, everybody’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€œFolks are struggling like never before,” she says, and in a nation struggling like never before, society cannot stand the strain.
snip
Her listeners have to wonder exactly what she has in mind by “regular folks” when Mrs. Obama says that after completing their Ivy League undergraduate and graduate educations, she and her husband “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.” But whether you are highly educated multi-millionaires or not, in Michelle Obama’s America, chances are you’re afraid, isolated, and hopeless,She employs an all-female staff of aides for her political role just like Hillary .

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.


http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OWI1ZGE5NDY4ZjY0YzZhZjE0NGY0Zjg4Yjc3NmVjZTI=

Michelle Obama, Queen of the grievance-mongers.

Lets see she has a A.B. in sociology,from Princeton University and a  cum laude; J.D.from Harvard Law School .In 2006, the Chicago Tribune reported that Mrs. Obama’s compensation at the University of Chicago Hospital, where she is a vice president for community affairs, jumped from $121,910 in 2004, just before her husband was elected to the Senate, to $316,962 in 2005, just after he took office. And that does not count the money Mrs. Obama receives from serving on corporate boards. She would have been O.K. even without Jack’s magic beans,Should be plenty of money to payoff tuition costs !

Michelle Obama’s America–and mine

I believe it was Michael Kinsley who quipped that a gaffe is when a politician tells the truth. In this case, it’s what happens when an elite Democrat politician’s wife says what a significant portion of the party’s base really believes to be the truth: That America is more a source of shame than pride.

Michelle Obama has achieved enormous professional success, political influence, and personal acclaim in America. Ivy League-educated, she’s been lauded by Essence magazine as one of the 25 World’s Most Inspiring Women; by Vanity Fair as one of the “10 World’s Best Dressed People; and named one of “The Harvard 100″ top influencers. She has had an amazingly blessed life. But you wouldn’t know it from her campaign rhetoric and her griping over her and her husband’s student loans.

For years, we’ve heard liberals get offended at any challenge to their patriotism. And so they are again aggrieved and rising to explain away Mrs. Obama’s remarks.

Like Lady MacBeth*, Lady Michelle and her defenders protest too much.

***

Update: Yes, my English teachers are going to kill me. The Shakespeare reference is to Hamlet, not MacBeth!

http://michellemalkin.com/2008/02/20/michelle-obamas-america-and-mine/