It seems Barack Hussein Obama is perturbed that his blushing bride is finally taking some heat for her comments about the United States.

Tough!

For Obama to suggest that the Tennessee Republican Party’s brief television spot featuring Michelle Obama’s words is “unacceptable . . . [and] low class” is unacceptable and ignorant. (For that TV clip, see  http://news.aol.com/elections/story/_a/obama-tells-gop-to-lay-off-my-wife/20080519080309990001?icid=1615988631x1202640441x1200306070)

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama has made herself an issue in this campaign, an interesting issue at that, and thereby presents herself as fair game.  As a potential presidential spouse who speaks her mind about contemporary America, a place she evidently doesn’t like very much, she’s entitled to say her piece. However, even if she doesn’t stand by her man, she should at least stand by her words and not pass the whining buck to him.

Be assured that as First Lady she will feel free to critique the nation and its people and problems, a critique that will be a unique perspective. Unlike Laura Bush and Cindy McCain, Michelle Obama will be an activist First Lady. She will be no Bess Truman, no Mamie Eisenhower, no Jackie Kennedy, no Pat Nixon, no Betty Ford, no Nancy Reagan, and no Barbara Bush. She’s far more akin to Eleanor Roosevelt, Roslyn Carter, and Hillary Clinton who, respectively, publically articulated their ideology, sat in on Cabinet meetings, and tried to socialize our health care system.

Should Obama ever be elected to the highest office in the land and become leader of the Free World and Chief Executive of the world’s only superpower, his bride would become the most loud-mouthed radical First Lady since Eleanor. The Whiner in Chief would have his hands full just condemning her critics.

There’s quite a bit to criticize now and there will be much more to criticize subsequently.

Michelle Obama’s outspokenness is not a new development in her life. It predates the current campaign by some twenty-three years, back to her Princeton undergrad days and her senior thesis, Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community. That paper wasn’t supposed to see the glaring light of day until after the election, according to some sources. (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8642.html)  The reason is obvious.

She reveals in that thesis an extremely race-conscious persona who perceives the world through a dark prism colored by her combative nature, her evident paranoia, her perception that American Blacks are engaged in a war with White Americans, and a clear desire for Black separation rather than integration into American society.

It’s no wonder the Obama campaign wasn’t eager to share those feelings and did so only after Princeton refused to release the thesis and full disclosure was demanded by such organizations as Politico.com.

Michelle researched her thesis primarily via an 18 point questionnaire sent to 400 black Princeton grads, of which 90 responded, largely with answers that were both surprising and disappointing to her.  The questions dealt with such topics as religion, living arrangements, economic status, and their comfort levels when interacting with blacks and whites before, during, and after attending Princeton. 

Most interesting were questions about their thoughts about lower class blacks and whether the respondents now held  “separationist and/or pluralist”  or an “integrationist and/or assimilationist” viewpoint. She observed, “I hoped that these findings would help me conclude that despite the high degree of identification with whites as a result of the educational and occupational path that black Princeton alumni follow, the alumni would still maintain a certain level of identification with the black community. However, these findings do not support this possibility.”  Note the word, hoped, a hope that went unfulfilled. Black Princeton grads opted for assimilation and not separation and were becoming too white for Michelle’s tastes. (See http://afk.blogtownhall.com/2008/02/23/michelle_obamas_negative_view_of_white_people.thtml for the entire thesis and commentary.)

Fast forward a few decades during which Michelle attended Harvard Law School, entered the corporate world, met and married Barack Hussein Obama, worked in the public sector, and finally became involved in her husband’s presidential campaign. Now, with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright—who performed their marriage ceremony-- ostensibly out of the picture, she is arguably one of his chief advisors and definitely his most avid campaigner. 

Unfortunately for the candidate, there’s a barely concealed undercurrent of anger and bitterness in Michelle Obama. Suggested long before at Princeton, that undercurrent occasionally bubbles to the surface, as in her now infamous line spoken last February, “Let me tell you something, for the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country.” Just as Barack has tried to backpedal away from his mentor and advisor, Rev. Wright, Michelle has sought to clarify, explain—dare we say, parse—that statement, but with little avail. Lamely, she tried to say that what she meant was that she was proud of how Americans were involved with the political process. 

Whatever clarification there was in her clarification is beyond me. Haven’t Americans, not all, certainly, but millions, always been involved? If she meant, as seems likely, involved in attempting to elect Barack president, why not just say that? Or would that be too divisive? 

In a more recent speech, a real rabble-rouser, Michelle Obama’s projected her negative personal feelings onto all America, much like Jimmy Carter extrapolated his malaise to the nation.  See for yourself:

“In 2008, we are still a nation that is too divided. We live in isolation, and because of that isolation, we fear one another. We don’t know our neighbors, we don’t talk, we believe our pain is our own. We don’t realize that the struggles and challenges of all of us are the same. We are too isolated. And we are still a nation that is still too cynical. We look at it as “them” and “they” as opposed to “us”. We don’t engage because we are still too cynical. …

I could go on and on, but this is how we’re living, people, in 2008.

And things have gotten progressively worse throughout my lifetime, through Democratic and Republican administrations, it hasn’t gotten better for regular folks. . .

We have lost the understanding that in a democracy, we have a mutual obligation to one another . . . we have to compromise and sacrifice for one another in order to get things done. That is why I am here, because Barack Obama is the only person in this who understands that. That before we can work on the problems, we have to fix our souls. Our souls are broken in this nation.”

(For her speech in its entirety, with commentary by Hugh Hewitt, see http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/MediaPlayer/AudioPlayer.aspx?ContentGuid=9e3a08aa-ad84-46cf-8492-6aff289bca42.)

Just what does it take to make Michelle Obama happy and proud of her country? 

As a coed on scholarship after graduating from a Chicago Magnet School, she concluded mournfully in her thesis that her attendance at prestigious, Ivy League Princeton would result in “further integration and/or assimilation into a white cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant.” Most of her interim years, while she achieved great success despite her peripheral societal status, are not public record but one would think all her achievements would have made her happy and proud of the country that afforded the opportunity for those achievements. However, one would then be wrong.

Not only does Mrs. Obama have little or any pride in America, she sees this great land as “divided . . . [and] cynical. She sees the nation as populated by “isolated” and “cynical” people in “pain” with “broken souls” living in “fear.” Worst of all, she believes “things have gotten progressively worse throughout my lifetime, . . . it hasn’t gotten better for regular folks. . .”

Mrs. Obama, where the hell have you been for the past fifty years while Blacks have made unprecedented progress and have achieved unimagined success in this country? How have you tried to heal our “broken souls?” And how do you presume to identify with us “regular folks” after your life of privilege? 

What Michelle Obama is preaching is negativism and racial divisiveness under the cloak of change and reform and try as she might to conceal the fact, she is a racial bigot who still seeks Black separation and segregation. That is in line with the aims of Rev. Wright’s hero, Louis Farrakhan, the chief difference being that Farrakhan has the guts to say it.

Is Michelle being picked on in that Tennessee TV ad? I hope so. She deserves it. Like Bill and Hil, we’ll be getting two for the price of one and that price promises to be very steep so we’re entitled to pick away.  She believes “Barack Obama is the only person in this who understands” America’s dire straits.  What arrogant presumption!

As for Barack’s demand that critics refrain from criticizing his wife, I’d agree to that--as soon as she ceases to demean my country and denigrate Americans.