RUSH: Michelle Obama’s sacrifice, a big, long piece at Salon.com. It’s by Deborah Dickerson, who is in a feminist fury over Michelle Obama giving up her job at the hospital there in Chicago to go work for her husband’s campaign, which she’s going to be nothing more than a glorified hostess. Here’s how the piece begins. You knew it had to happen.
‘Damn it all, Michelle Obama has quit her $215,000 dream job and demoted herself to queen. Though the party line is that she’s only ‘scaled back’ to a 20 percent workload, I doubt her former co-workers will bother alerting her to many staff meetings. She’s traded in her solid gold résumé, high-octane talent and role as vice president of community and external affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals to be a professional wife and hostess.’ That is just distasteful to a true feminist. ‘Now, the energy and drive that had her up jogging before dawn and a gratifying day of work and family will mainly be spent smiling for the cameras. Just as we watch curvy, healthy-looking singers and actresses like Lindsay Lohan become anorexic too-blonde hoochies before our very eyes, so we’re now in danger of having to watch the political version of that process.’ Michelle Obama destined to be the Lindsay Lohan of American politics. ‘Any day now, Michelle Obama’s handlers will have her glued into one of those Sunday-go-to-meeting Baptist grandma crown hats while smiling vapidly for hours at a time. When, of course, she’s not staring moonstruck, à la Nancy Reagan, at her moon doggie god-husband who’s not one bit smarter than she is.’
All right, you got another liberal here taking out after the ‘magic negro.’ Did you hear this? This gal is nothing more than a door mat. She is truly bitter, these are angry women. I’m telling you, these militant feminazis are angry. At ‘her moon doggie god-husband who’s not one bit smarter than she is. My heart breaks for her just thinking about it. Being president will be hard. So will being first lady for the brilliant Michelle — imagine, having to begin all your sentences with ‘My husband and I…” And you people wonder. I guarantee you, I don’t know how old this babe is, but she comes from the schooling of the modern era of feminazi-ism which started in the late sixties, the early seventies. ‘I’m in a feminist fury about Michelle (I’ll use her first name to avoid confusion with her husband) feeling forced to quit, but make no mistake: I’m not blaming her. Few could stand up to the pressure she’s facing, especially from blacks, to sacrifice herself on the altar of her husband’s ambition. He could be the first black president, you know! Also, she must be beside herself trying to hold things together for her daughters. I’m blaming the world and every man, woman, child and border collie in it who helps send the message that women’s lives must be subordinate to everyone else’s.’
Ms. Dickerson — I’m sure it is Ms. — Ms. Dickerson, Deborah Dickerson. I don’t know if it is the case in Michelle Obama’s circumstance, but some women need a man to move ahead. Some women, if you remove their last name, nobody would care who they are. If you take away certain women’s last names, married names, then nobody would care who they are. And, by the way, Hillary gets a big break later on in this story. Hillary doesn’t come in for the same treatment, the skewering Michelle Obama is getting here. ‘While I’m not blaming Michelle, I am issuing a challenge: This political and professional sutee won’t end until women refuse to step into the fire, disapproval be damned. Sen. Clinton can’t do everything: The rest of us women must stand our ground.’ Mrs. Clinton can’t do everything? Mrs. Clinton’s a pioneer taking the arrows? (Laughing.) What has Mrs. Clinton done is asked and answered on this show countless times. So here, we move on.
‘What can Michelle do? If Obama wins, she should go for it and take on a meaningful public policy role, à la Hillary Clinton’s healthcare work. Just a lot more carefully. Why on earth should such an accomplished woman just arrange white-tie dinners? Until then, she should become more outspoken, building on her husband’s willingness to confront dysfunction in the black community — a black mother can get away with what no one else could.’ I don’t know who this Deborah Dickerson is, but how about this: A black mother could get away with what no one else could? What in the world? I don’t even want to touch it. What in the world could that possibly mean? ‘Obama has chastised blacks for apathy, for crime, for equating achievement with ‘acting white,’ for allowing their neighborhoods to deteriorate; Michelle’s street cred as a churchgoing, ’round the way’ sister…’ What is ’round the way’? She put that in quotes. ‘Round the way.’ It means in the hood? When I was young, round the way was just a synonym for round heels, and that can’t be what this means. That can’t — no, no, no, no, no, no. Throw that out.
‘Michelle’s street cred as a churchgoing, ’round the way’ sister who made good makes her ‘ghetto pass’ (her ability to operate as an insider) irrevocable. There will be no discussion of whether or not she’s ‘black.’ Most important, though, I hope Michelle will bring feminism to black women,’ writes Deborah Dickerson. But even as I seek silver linings, I’m still sad for Michelle. As the Times reports, ‘She expresses no regret about scaling down her job … where colleagues say she excels at tackling thorny problems. But this winter, after spotting a book on the Obamas’ coffee table celebrating Mr. Obama’s Senate victory, her staff created a matching volume of her accomplishments. Mrs. Obama wept when she saw it.’
Let me tell you what’s wrong with this. Let me define this for you. Feminism looks at male-female relationships as a competition, and Michelle is losing the competition. This feminist babe, Deborah Dickerson is wound up about it. So, if Obama’s going to get a book on his Senate victory, by gosh, the staff’s not going to let her go unnoticed. She’s going to get a book on her own achievement, right there next to his on the coffee table. So they set up competitions here between people that supposedly love each other, all in the name of a political movement known as feminism.