Drive-Bys Spin for Mrs. Obama

RUSH: Here is Michelle Obama during an introduction of her husband, ‘the magic negro,’ Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama at a Chicago appearance last week.

MICHELLE OBAMA: One of the things, the important aspects of this race is role modeling what good families should look like. And my view is that if you can’t run your own house, you certainly can’t run the White House.

RUSH: All right, well, this has caused a major kerfuffle out there in the Democrat Party and on the left. Who was she talking about? Why, it couldn’t possibly have been the Clintons, why, who would think that? I mean, just because Hillary is Barack’s opponent and leading in the race, why would she even — no, it couldn’t, it can’t be Hillary. They even caught up with Barack yesterday in Kansas City. He spoke to the VFW. By the way, I saw some of these speeches these guys gave. Barack at the VFW said we can’t win, we’ve already lost in Iraq. Hillary went in there, we played sound bites of her speech, and she just sounded bored to tears being in that room, like it was an obligatory thing for her. And it was. It’s the last place she wants to be is in front of a bunch of vets. President Bush today, compared to these Democrats that meandered through the speech hall, was just a stark contrast. None of these people on the left look presidential at all or even sound it. Anyway, Barack, after his speech to the VFW was asked by reporters who his wife was talking about. He’s off-mic here. It’s a little hard to hear.

REPORTER: You want to respond in regards to comments that your wife made whether or not they were intended to be about the Clintons?

OBAMA: I addressed that. (cross-talk) Come on. Come on. You guys — you guys are trying to manufacture something.

RUSH: Come on, come on, you guys are trying to manufacture something. The Democrats and the Drive-Bys twisted themselves into pretzels all day trying to backpedal on Michelle Obama’s comments about the Clintons. Here is a montage:

TODD: Barack Obama was asked today on a conference call about whether his wife was talking about the Clintons and he said, ‘no.’

BLITZER: Who was she referring to? We’re trying to read between the lines here.

BRAZILE: I don’t think she was taking a swipe at the Clintons.

POWERS: This is Michelle Obama talking about their family and their decisions.

DAVIS: She talked about how the Obama family is dealing with their children.

GREEN: There’s no chance she was indirectly, subliminally referring to Hillary.

KOCH: At the moment that she made the line, she smiled.

STORM: She and her husband came out and said, ‘No, that’s not true. It was taken out of context.’

MITCHELL: Much ado about nothing. Everybody thinks it is a cat fight. I do not see it that way.

SYLVESTER: Do you think that was a swipe at Hillary?

RUSH: Yeah. How can anybody even think this? It had nothing to do with Hillary Clinton. People are trying to manufacture a cat fight. Now, the Drive-Bys are trying to prevent any criticism of Mrs. Clinton at all. Why were they so afraid to come out and say it? She was talking about the Clintons. Didn’t they hear Michelle Obama’s other comments? Listen to this whole thing.

MICHELLE OBAMA: Fear, fear of everything. Fear that we might lose. Fear that he might get hurt. Fear that this would be ugly. Fear that it would hurt our family. Fear. But, you know, the reason why I said yes was because I am tired of being afraid. (Applause.) I am so tired of fear, and I don’t want my girls to live in a country, in a world, based on fear.

RUSH: Well, I’ll tell you this, if she doesn’t want her girls to be raised in a country and live in a country that’s based on fear, she better talk to every one of these Democrat candidates about what they say about the future of this country, because if there’s anybody out there who is creating a climate of fear, crisis, angst, and tumult, it’s the Democrat Party and the American left, and they do it by design. They do it on purpose. So if her daughters are living in fear, there’s a place that she can shield them from, and that’s her own husband’s campaign, and the campaign of Mrs. Clinton and so forth.

Here’s the See, I Told You So. This morning on the CBS Early Show, Hannah Storm’s talking about the candidates’ wives with Bob Schieffer. Remember, now, we explored this all week on this program. This is what I mean by you listen here, you are on the cutting edge of societal evolution, which means you will know what’s important before what’s important becomes important. You’ll be ahead of everybody in terms of the timeline of events, just as this sound bite illustrates. Hannah Storm says, ‘Look, there’s a school of thought out there that says with a woman running for the presidential Democratic nominee, it may be up to the wives to criticize her because the men can’t.’

SCHIEFFER: There’s something to what you say, Hannah. You have a woman running. It is sometimes difficult for men to criticize women without looking like they’re browbeating them or being — you know, putting them down in some kind of way. And so I think you will hear — you will hear the wives speak out during this campaign. I mean we just have some very activist wives this time out, especially on the Democratic side. I don’t think you will see it as much on the Republican side.

RUSH: Why is that, Bob? Is it because they’re in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant? Why are the Republican wives not going to speak? Maybe it’s because when they even just show up, like Fred Thompson’s wife, they are smeared, even though she doesn’t even open her mouth, she is smeared because she’s a trophy wife in her case. Here’s Elizabeth Edwards, by the way. She was on the Early Show today. The Question: ‘Michelle Obama has been in the news for a comment she made last week. There are people that feel because it’s a woman that is running it might come down to the wives to come down on Hillary Clinton, because a man can’t criticize a woman in that way. What are your thoughts about that?’

ELIZABETH EDWARDS: If you’re talking about policies and things like that, there’s no problem in anyone criticizing or making the distinctions between their policies and Senator Clinton’s policies. In fact, I think it’s an imperative that you do that. Michelle’s on her own on this one.

RUSH: (Laughing.) Whoa! It sounds to me like Elizabeth thinks she was talking about Hillary, too, even though the Drive-Bys are trying to spin that the other way. My reaction to this bite: Well, then, if it’s imperative for the candidates to disagree with each other on policy, why are you doing all the talking for your husband?