Jezebel 
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New York, 9:30 AM
Mon Nov 23
18 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/14/08
11/14/08
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11/14/08
Go for moms in space, rather than dreamkillers like mine!
11/14/08
11/14/08
Sigh...I don't even have kids and I'm on the fast track to mom-martyrdom.
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11/14/08
Sorry for skipping to the chorus -- I couldn't help myself. It's just so goshdarn fun to sing!
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11/14/08
Good luck Naoko!
11/14/08
11/14/08
11/12/08
As a first lady, she is in a highly visible position, and could easily use her office to affect change. And no, I am not talking about Laura Bush's "America Reads" campaign (though I do think in earnest it was and is a hole that needed to be addressed), or Hilary's pathetic "diplomacy" trips.
Michelle Obama is a brilliant, successful woman, and if her husband is as brilliant and as successful as we think he is, he will put his wife to good work in his government. Yes, one could construe this as nepotism - but it is quite clear she has the experience and the smarts. There is also some precedence in other Western governments of spouses having important roles: Cecelia Sarkozy, Sarkozy's second wife (the one he divorced just before meeting Carla), was an integral member of his cabinet when he was minister of the interior.
Wasn't Michelle a Vice President at the University of Chicago Hospital System until last year? I nominate her for Director of Health and Human Resources! She has much more health care management experience than Howard Dean.
11/12/08
SO, the fact that she's had to be "Momified" to be palatable to the country, and that she's had to give up (hopefully temporarily) her career to support her husband's, is what disappoints me. We have a million "great mom!" role models. I'd like to see a whip-smart woman celebrated for doing something professional for herself.
11/12/08
Yeah he "gets" to be POTUS. But he also "gets" to be away all the time, followed by cameras, and let's not forget the death threats.
But whatever. He's Michelle's oppressor. Obviously.
11/12/08
11/12/08
What I'm saying is that I respect her right to choose her path, and I respect her right to speak or not speak about her choice as she sees fit. And I'm not going to make any assumptions about how she feels about those choices and what sacrifices they may or may not have entailed, and what she really wanted and all that. As long as she's happy with herself, and her husband and her family and her life (and she seems well happy), then more power to her. She rocks.
11/12/08
And I'd hardly say that she's 'put her ambition on the back burner.' Being First Lady of the United States is essentially an informal ambassadorship. She'll be busier than ever, internationally renowned and representing a whole freaking country to the world at large. She will write books. She will start foundations. She will go down in history. And she will raise great kids at the same time.
She is one more in a long line of kick ass American First Ladies, sure to be on par with Abigail Adams, Dolly Madison, Eleanor Roosevelt and Hilary Clinton. Tell me again how this is a bad thing?
11/12/08
First Ladies are only remembered because they were married to the President, not because they achieved professional goals independently.
11/12/08
(And since when is writing books not a kickass accomplishment?)
Also, I am really dismayed by the lack of First Lady love in this thread -- it's an important position, people. First Ladies can do so much for their chosen causes.
11/12/08
Ditto for Hilary Clinton, who went from lawyer to First Lady to Senator to Presidential candidate. I don't think hosting dignitaries got in the way of her career.
Also, isn't it a little insulting to say that this didn't figure into Michelle's plan, as if she didn't have any say in the matter?
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11/12/08
@judgingnora still hates the new comment setup: Sure, we remember individual things about First ladies, whether it is their charity work or their fashion sense, but by definition, the First Lady is known simply because she's the President's wife.
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11/12/08
I meant that this didn't fit into Michelle's plan as she was shaping her life through prestigious universities, white-shoe law firms, etc. I'm not suggesting she's like, just blindly following her husband. But from some quotations from Audacity of Hope that are cited in the Salon article, it sounds like being a political spouse didn't really sit well with her, at least initially.
11/12/08
I don't understand why First Ladies, in this day and age, don't have day jobs. There are three options, the way I see it. 1) The women who have become First Ladies simply prefer not to have/keep their day jobs upon Hub's inauguration. 2) They feel like they can't do the things that a First Lady is expected to do and still work a day job. 3) They can't have a day job because everyone would lose their fucking minds over it, and over the First Lady not living up to the role of Wife In Chief.
I don't know...to me, (1) seems an unlikely coincidence considering some of the women the White House has seen (e.g. Hills). And (2) definitely shades into (3)--why are certain duties expected of the First Lady? Are they actually necessary by any stretch of the imagination?
I like to think that there are some women out there who would keep their day jobs (e.g. Howard Dean's wife, who I think would keep practicing medicine until they dragged her away from her stethoscope, since she largely didn't join him on the campaign trail in '04). But I think that there is something in our culture that prevents these women from doing that.
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11/12/08
Shirley Chisholm said many times that the sexism she faced was much harder to overcome than the racism she faced.
Interesting and passionate points all around from everyone.
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11/12/08
The White House visit: I fantasized more of Michelle Obama's conversation with Laura Bush than B.Obama's talk with G.Bush. I was more intrigued by the significance of Michelle's red dress as I scrutinized the video and pictures of the four them outside the White House. She stood out and made a statement. However, I got sad thinking the time Michelle would have to spend coordinating dinners, decorating the White House for public consumption, and the other tedious duties. For all I know, she may enjoy doing these things but it all seems so dated and inconsequential.
Sarah Palin's mis-en-scene: I'm not sure what to think of Sarah's TV appearances. If you were to turn the volume off, there is something to say about watching a national female politician moving around in the kitchen cooking while her husband cares for their child. I was struck by how confident she was moving around. However, I immediately thought the following: Would Senator Clinton, House Speaker Pelosi, or First Lady to be Michelle Obama be conducting an interview in the kitchen, cooking? Wouldn't each of them feel "domesticated" being interviewed in the kitchen, like I would? Would the younger generation male politicians conduct interviews in the kitchen--
Barack Obama, Bobby Jindal, Rahm Emmanuel, etc.? To be sure, the choice of the kitchen was a political calculation, and when you have nothing significant to say, whether policy or fact, then you might as well score political points. Still, I found it interesting.
All of this culminated with the Salon pieces. My husband theorizes that to Pagalia, Sarah Palin is an experiment. An experiment devoid of consequences and one for which I find disingenuous. I want to try to give Michelle Obama âspaceâ and try not to read too much of what her role will be in the White House. I say give it a couple of months before we start dissecting her role.
11/12/08
11/12/08