Two For The Price Of One? In the highly publicized race for the White House in 2008, each candidate is constantly briefed over and over again that every move they make, every word they speak will be listened to and scrutinized.
With projections indicating that whichever Democratic emerges from the primaries will garner a majority of support from the nation, some squabbling and challenging comments have begun to surface among the frontrunners.
Barack Obama, the first Black candidate to have a legitimate shot at actually winning the entire race, must be on notice that his comments will be overanalyzed and shaped in ways he’d never imagine.
But what about his wife, Michelle Obama?
When the Obamas were in Atlantic, Iowa last week, Michelle came out saying that the next president should be someone with some values. “Is he somebody that respects family? Is he a good and decent person?” Michelle Obama asked the crowd about the next president. “Our view is that if you can't run your own house, you certainly can't run the White House.”
These very basic and expected comments about family values were taken just as that until Tuesday when an article in Chicago Sun Times suggested that this was a swipe at Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, who’s past marital problems have been over-documented.
Once the idea was out there on this apparent slow news day, conservative powerhouse website The Drudge Report took note and plastered the assumptions all over their page. Presidential hopeful Obama has been deflecting and defending the statements ever since.The fact that the very generic comments of the presidential candidate’s wife are being spun and used to draw negative attention to him isn’t even the most ridiculous thing going on here. Who cares what wives, sons, daughters, husbands, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews of candidates are saying? If this long shot of an assumption is true, why do we care if Michelle Obama thinks Hillary should have slapped Bill upside his head and told him to sit his silly ass down?
What the hell does this have to do with Barack and his stance on the war? Could the over a decade old marital problems of Hillary Clinton and the opinion of his wife affect what Barack will plan to do about our deficient education system? When Michelle comes out next week and says Hillary’s hair and outfit is toe up from the floe up, will this change how Barack would decide to give us our basic privacy rights back that the Bush Administration has stripped?
America’s joke of a presidential race has gone from a discussion of the most important and life-changing issues of the nation to a gossip filled, party cheering, fashion show where we pay attention to what a candidate’s wife said about taking care of your own family.
Since it really is this easy to manipulate the brains of the citizens of this country and have them focus on middle school style fights to decide the fate of America, the next president really does have an abundance of work to do on our education system.
Keep talking, it’s the only way they’ll ever hear you.--JJJ