We’ll get to Michelle Obama’s hellish new quote in just a moment, but first, some quick background.
Back in September of 2007, I linked to a few of the future first lady’s more outre quotes (prior to this one) and asked, “Is Michelle Obama the Teresa Heinz of the 2008 campaign season?”
That was before Michelle started immanentizing the eschaton on behalf of her husband’s campaign early in the following year:
We have lost the understanding that in a democracy, we have a mutual obligation to one another — that we cannot measure the greatness of our society by the strongest and richest of us, but we have to measure our greatness by the least of these. That 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.
But be careful what you wish for — being the wife of the nation’s would-be soul repairer evidently can seem remarkably purgatorial. Flash-forward to last month, when Ann Althouse noted that based on all the signs from her myriad vacations this summer, First Lady Michelle Obama seemed rather unhappy being pigeonholed as first lady:
Michelle Obama got bad press galore during the 2008 campaign. She got her image readjusted — feminized, really. She became the wonderful mom, fashion icon, and purveyor of vegetables. You can just imagine how much she liked doing that. But as she stretched out within the hyper-feminine role imposed on her, she got into the manifestation of femininity that rubs people the wrong way. Too much shopping and free-spending on superficial, materialistic pleasures. It’s the classic feminine protest against confinement in a feminine role. Don’t like it? Then don’t limit powerful women that way. But if Michelle Obama isn’t limited, most people won’t like her. We saw that in 2008. I mean, I liked her, but it didn’t play well generally.
Earlier this month, Tom Maguire wrote, rather presciently in retrospect, that Mrs. Obama is “one unscripted comment away from telling the Great Unwashed what she really thinks about the rest of us:”
The only suspense is whether her gaffes will be swept under the rug (not that rug!) by the attending press. I am betting she will be ratted out — if her aides can turn on her, the press can.
And here we go!
In the item currently atop the Drudge Report, England’s Daily Mail claims, “Catty Carla Bruni lifts lid on Michelle Obama’s ‘hellish’ job:”
Michelle Obama thinks being America’s First Lady is ‘hell’, Carla Bruni reveals today in a wildly indiscreet new book.
Miss Bruni reveals that Mrs Obama replied when asked about her position as the U.S. president’s wife: ‘Don’t ask! It’s hell. I can’t stand it!’
Details of the private conversation, which took place at the White House during an official visit by Nicolas Sarkozy last March, emerged in Carla And The Ambitious, a book written in collaboration with Miss Bruni.
In it, she says one term as French president ‘will be enough’ for her husband and suggests he might take tips from his friend Tony Blair: ‘Why not start making money?’
I wonder if Michelle is proffering similar suggestions to her husband right about now?
I’m sure the walking back of her quote will commence immediately, and/or megatons of context will be applied to spin it into something more palatable. (Mea culpas along the lines of “I said it was hell, Katie/Oprah/Whoopi, because Barack and I work so hard for the American people,” are possibly soon to come.)
But even so, there’s a certain amount of damage already done, particularly given its mega-hyping by the Drudge Report. How will it all play out on the campaign trail this month and next, where Obama had apparently hoped his wife would be an asset during the midterms?
Update: Roger L. Simon asks the logical follow-up question: If Michelle hates being first lady, what does her husband think about being POTUS?
Update (10:55 AM PM 9/16/10): Well that didn’t long for the walkback to begin; currently on Drudge:
- WH: ‘The first lady never said that’…
- FRENCH EMBASSY: ‘The words were never said’…
- BOOK PAYBACK? Barack and Michelle Obama decline dinner with the Sarkozys…
Regarding that last one, insert your own “They told me if I voted for…” riffs Insta-riffs regarding the president and foreign relations here.
And as Karl Rove notes in the Wall Street Journal about the president’s largely self-inflicted domestic woes, “in just 20 months, Mr. Obama has lost control of his presidency’s narrative.” The damage control this morning over the FLOTUS doesn’t help matters.
Hmmmm. May be time to restart the ol’ Michelle Obama Suicide Watch.
She seems to be one of those people who is perpertually very, very pissed off.
If you can’t become at least moderately happy having 35 full-time personal assistants (including private masseurs, private chefs, private shoppers, private doctirs, maids, flower arrangers, private secretaries, and private security), living for free in one of the largest mansions in the world, having 24/7 access to your own private customized 747 jet, fleets of custom limosines, invites to the poshest parties all over the world, having everybody you will ever meet do whatever you say, no questions asked, while sucking up to you with wild abandon, and having the finest entertainers and artists in the world begging to perform for you, on your schedule and in your house, then you are one extraordinarily hard to please person.
And this does not even consider that this is all given to her for free, with no effort or commitment on her part, not having done a thing to deserve it (except marry the right person by random chance), nor does it consider the millions she will get from her husband’s books and speeches, as well as the hundreds of millions he will make after he leaves office. Again, all this for absolutely no work, knowledge, skills, or effort on her part what-so-ever.
My heavens, what a horrible, horrible life she is forced to lead. She is the only thing (and I mean the only thing) that makes me pity Barack.
Drastic measures need to be taken to protect the First Lady. All mirrors should be removed from the White House post haste.
just give her her burka now.
you’d think they’d have learned by now to give her her own teleprompter.
Ditto to ked5.
You being First Woman is that bad? That’s all right, Michelle. It’s not much fun for us either.
Not much fun and hopefully
NOT MUCH LONGER!!
The problem might be that for the first time, she and Barry are actually be watched, scrutinized as to what they are actually up to as they try to destroy America and make it more like Barry’s “home country”
Why should we, the people, be the only ones who have to suffer because her husband is President?
Dear Mrs. O, You are not alone. We can’t stand you either. But please be a good sport anyway, serve out your sentence. In two years, it’ll be all over. We don’t have to pay for your Antoinnette tours, nor your husband’s lousy golf games. And, more importantly, you will get out of being a hellish First Lady. It’s hellish to pretend to be a lady when you are not, isn’t it?
Poor thing needs to take another vacation and have her feet massaged.
One can only guess how lonely it gets at the top of your husbands career.
Her pain is causing me to lose some of my pride in America.
The spin will be that Michelle LOVES the gardening, visiting kids, dance venues, etc., but she is SO much more! She’s a towering intellect who has had to dial back her wonderfulness in order to serve as a mere First Lady. Those who believe this are the sort who believe a fairy put a quarter under their pillow in exchange for a tooth.
In fact, I expect Ms. Obama is hoping to become President herself.
Or Barack and Gibbs will pompously pull their mouths down and say “the president’s family is off limits.”
I am curious why this photo was chosen which highlights the 1st lady’s, um, generous rump. Ya know, that’s about the only thing that they haven’t blamed Bush for.
Love the picture! It is how I picture them, leaving soon. Buh-bye!
Carla Bruni is doing us all a favor, we can now stop pretending that she likes the role, we like her, etc. What a relief, if she liked being FLOTUS, I would feel sorry for her, she’d doing such a poor job. MO, Chicago needs you!
The only thing that separates FLOTUS from FLATUS is O. That’s curious.
Well, if we are going to comment on the photo then why not comment on what the frontal pictures at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1312462/Michelle-Obama-thinks-First-Lady-hell-says-Carla-Bruni.html most remind me of . . . how’s about Chewbacca from Star Wars. I think there is probably even some public speaking vocal simularities between Meeeeecheeeeeeeeeeeeeel (pronounced in that very special Chewie way) and Chewbacca.
“MO, Chicago needs you!”
Please,not in my back yard!!!
It is unseemly to comment on Michelles large butt. She is the First Lady and represents all of us. Calling attention to her generous rump is very impolite. We should strive to behave civily. Many, many Americans suffer from bigg butts. But they are all Americans. We should all attempt to overlook these petty imperfections. There. I feel better having said that. Quite a butt, though.
Indeed, it is generous. And for some reason I laugh and laugh when she launches into her sermons about eating better or when the PR team talks about her being in great shape. The Emperor has not clothes and the Empress always looks like she needs a bigger size.
OK, so I’ll remain respectful. Does that mean I can’t say it should have its own zip code?
I am actually with Mrs. Obama on this one. I have never understood why anyone would want to be President or First Lady. It would be hell. This is why it is difficult to get a good president. You have to be nuts to want the job. And this one certainly qualifies.
“Don’t ask! It’s hell. I can’t stand it”
I’m sure after that tough job as diversity officer, this is as close to a real job as she’ll ever have.
It’s always seemed that, temperament-wise, the one who was soaking up Rev. Wright’s sermons for all those years was Michelle, not Barack. Whatever sympathies he may have had ideologically to what he was hearing on Sundays, his personality doesn’t lend itself to mimicry of his style. Her’s does, and that’s probably why she thinks her current job is ‘hell’.
I’m sure she’d love to be out there giving fiery, partisan speeches like some high-profile members of the Congressional Black Caucus on how awful America still is on her pet issues, but she’s been muzzled, and hasn’t even been thrown a serious political policy bone, the way Hillary was tossed (and screwed up) national health care in 1993-94. The most authority she’s been given is as the point-woman on the White House’s jihad against McDonald’s and Burger King — which as some of their personal food preferences have shown she probably doesn’t care about for anything other than PR purposes.
If Obama loses in 2012, odds are he’s going to become a bitter sniper in the Jimmy Carter mode towards his successors. But Michelle’s the one who’ll really let it hang out, once she has the freedom and the platform of being an ex-First Lady to say what she really thinks without having to weigh the political consequences.
I agree with your last point and have thought this since day one. This will be the time when the final believers in Hopenchange will have the scales peeled off their eyeballs and see al-Bama and Me-chelle Antoinette for whom they really are.
As regards the latter is has been painfully embarrassing to watch people recast her as some sort of fashionable towering intellect. It has been the very worse version of “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”
You had best enjoy what you have now as when your husband goes to prison for high crimes and misdemeanors and you go also, for the cover up of him not being a citizen. Then you will wish you were back wasting tax payers money, so you could go on those lucrative vacations. And to quote one above me, we are not happy with you and your inexperienced husband being there, as you have made living in America under your watch hell.
Meeeeechelle is a crybaby.
I hate crybabies.
Or, because it’s hearsay, it will simply be denied. No need for spin. Come on, folks.
Not that simple. To deny it, she’d have to imply that Carla Bruni is lying.
Not that Carla would ever lie…to promote herself. Once upon a time everything that came from France was in question…why should that first lady be more bleived then our first lady. Careful everyone…why is Carla (a bit of a nut case herself) more honest?
Well, she (Bruni) isn’t (above lying), but even dissemblers can shed a bit of truth once and a while. Who would really be all that suprised if our “charming” First Lady of the toned biceps had said something along those lines? In fact, I’d wager that not many would be suprised if she said much worse; it seems quite in keeping with her general demeanor.
Our FLOTUS is a spoiled, resentful, petulant brat (and a sour, bitter, and angry soul to boot). That she has had a life of relative ease and opulence makes this all the more hard to bear by the rest of us…Marie Antoinette, from all accounts, was at least a mild mannered individual. Not so our Michelle Antoinette.
Dear, ‘sweet’ Michelle:
Frankly, I am glad to hear that you cannot stand being First Lady; you certainly are not worthy of the title. I hope you are at least as miserable as the millions of proud Americans who are stuck in the untenable position of having your sorry ass and your husband’s even sorrier ass squatting up there in the WH.
They’re such a lovely pair – the cranky first couple. Some people can rise to the occasion, some can’t. But, by all means, when you’re having a bad day, blab to a foreign dignitary’s wife. These people certainly are not as bright as the press has made them out to be.
I wonder if this is related to POTUS not wearing a wedding ring at last weeks presser. Trouble in paradise?
I’ll bet the Clinton 2012 machine is kicking into high gear after this revelation.
Save us all the trouble Michelle, leave now. I’m sure there’s a Hollywood bimbo that can step in and finish the term.
Is there anything that can satisfy this woman? She lived for 45 years not being satisfied with her own country, remember? She told us so herself. I didn’t get to go to Princeton and Harvard. She did. I didn’t get to have a $300,000 a year job. She did. I didn’t get to buy a 1.6 million dollar house in an exclusive Chicago neighborhood. She did. And I certainly didn’t get to live in the White House. She did. She has experienced the American Dream in spades and yet she is a sniveling, ungrateful whiner. She makes me sick.
I miss Laura Bush. She was a CLASS ACT. Michelle Obama – NOT!!!!!!!!!
I agree with you. Laura Bush was a real lady of a First Lady. She didn’t come from a fancy family; she was naturally a classy person. Every time she opened her mouth, she had something graceful to say. She always dressed nicely too. I miss her too, so much.
Chain smoker, alcoholic, prescription drug addict and vehicular killer. Yeah, she’s a peach.
Or the next Kennedy.
I am one of those who strongly believes that administration opponenets should simply back away from anything touching on Ms. Obama and let her go on her merry way. Sooner or later she is going to say or do something that is so completely off the hook that even the most slavish Obama media acolyte won’t be able to perform damage-control. We certainly don’t need to give her the excuse that her outburst was the result of her “continued ill-treatment at the hands of the right-wing media.”
MIchelle is something that has become increasingly common in our culture. The successful, high-profile professional who, despite personal success, seems to be seething with unfocused resentment. It’s almost as if the resentment is an integral part of the personal presentation, just as much as a Prada handbag, expensive hairstyle or first class designer shoes.
Oh, I totally agree — don’t even bother doing anything but noting what Michelle says and does, pretty much without comment, because she really, really wants to do a full Al Sharpton stem-winder speech on the American public about the unfairness and inherent racism still within U.S. society, and how far behind we are compared to other more enlightened nations.
The battle for her staff and those in the West Wing of the White House is to make sure none of that ever comes out at least until after the 2012 election.
19. chambers: “It’s almost as if the resentment is an integral part of the personal presentation, just as much as a Prada handbag, expensive hairstyle or first class designer shoes.”
She is apparently not wise enough to realize that money cannot buy happiness, as the ol’ saying goes.
16. waltc: “I’m sure there’s a Hollywood bimbo that can step in and finish the term.”
BO’s latest squeeze will do. LOL!
17. JK: “She makes me sick.”
If you had to be her in order to have all those wonderful things, you’d not touch them with a 10-foot pole. Think about that.
It’s bad to be the queen.
My wildest conjecture is that one day we will discover that Michelle LaVaughn Robinson was the real player behind this political drama the whole time. Twenty years ago she hitched herself to Barack Obama just as the young and ambitious Hillary Rodham had hitched herself to Bill Clinton, each believing she had chosen an articulate mannequin. In Michelle’s case the suit really is empty but in Hillary’s life her stand in proved to be smarter and tougher than she is. This is of course a profoundly unfeminist and indeed reactionary way for an educated, in Michele’s case an expensively but badly educated, and ambitious woman to deal with the world. The resulting tensions and contradictions from such a deceptive and humiliating charade must become intolerable. Perhaps when it all ends in tears the children will turn out to be actors in a Truman Show fantasy who go back to their real families.
ahhhh yes, we do have our daydreams. Dream on lotm , I’m right there with you.
My take on it is that it was an arranged marriage. Michelle worked at the same law firm as Bernadine Dohrn. Barack and Michelle met at that law firm. Bill Ayers lived in the same neighborhood as Barack did in NYC for several years.
Concur
Im sure there is a Hollywood men that can step in and finish the term.
PeeWee Herman is waiting for the call…
LORD HAVE MERCY!
For only the second time in my adult life, I am not ashamed of my country.
I want to thank the hard working American people for paying $242,000 (plus a few hundred thou in additional expenses) for my vacation in Spain. My daughter Sasha, several long-time family friends, my personal staff and various guests had a wonderful time. Honestly, you just haven’t lived until you have stayed in a $2,500.00 per night suite at a 5-Star luxury hotel. We only booked 70 rooms for our friends, staff and family. Thank you also for the use of Air Force 2 and the 70 Secret Service personnel who tagged along to be sure we were safe and cared for at all times — with our 13-vehicle convoy.
Air Force 2 only used 47,500 gallons of jet fuel for this trip and carbon emissions were a mere 1,031 tons of CO2. It costs only $11,500 per hour to operate Air Force 2 and each additional plane for the other members of our party group. These are only rough estimates, but they are close (who’s counting?). That’s quite a carbon footprint as my good friend Al Gore would say, so we must ask the American citizens to drive smaller, more fuel efficient cars and drive less too, so we can lessen our combined carbon footprint.
I know times are hard and millions of you are struggling to put food on the table and trying to make ends meet. I do appreciate your sacrifice and do hope you find work soon. I was really exhausted after Barack took our family on a luxury vacation in Maine a few weeks ago. I just had to get away for a few days. Will write more from Martha’s Vineyard where we will spend our sixth vacation this year with more of our family and friends.
With Gratitude,
Michelle Obama
You can take the girl out of the ghetto.. but you can’t take the ghetto out of the girl!
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.
Well, God Damn America! The way to fix those souls, is to dis people as bitter clingers. To tell them they are mean.
To sue them for wanting to protect their borders.
To turn them into the U.N. for wanting to be safe from terrorists.
To build shrines to mass murderers on the graves of their innocent victims.
Fixing souls and damning America. The Devil’s Cobbler has much work to do.
Poor, poor Michelle! She was born with a black hoof in her mouth. I have great sympathy for this ghetto rat who suddenly found herself thrust into the national spotlight. It is so difficult for such a rodent to adapt to the rarified air of a place like the WH. Perhaps if the taxpayers had constructed a new dwelling and painted it differently she would have been more content. I just hope that MO understands that the ‘hell’ she has endured cannot be compared with the hell that she and her wretched husband have bestowed upon the American people. Perhaps she and Barack can just leave early, tomorrow is not too soon, and return to the Chicago sewer from whence they arose. That is change I can believe in.
“Poor, poor Michelle! She was born with a black hoof in her mouth.”
Priceless!!
This babe should put on a red bandanna and memorize the words to “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.”
True or not, THERE IS A CURE that will rescue the hapless Michelle Obama from hell, and that is to vote her husband out of office.
What happened to, “for the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.” I’ll give you my view whether you want it or not.
What happened to the “Hope?” I think Michelle thought that America would absolutely revere Obama once he began his promised transformation of America and Americans began to see the wonders this great man would produce on nothing more than the sheer power of his intellect, his extensive experience as a community organizer and the overwhelming quality of the individuals that surrounded, supported and promoted his candidacy and sold them both and a majority of Americans on this pile of horse excrement.
And now the inevitable result. Her dearly beloved and revered Obama has turned out to have feet encased in jack boots with spiked soles and the American proletariat, those poor, unwashed, ignoramuses clinging to their religion and guns, have seen through the carefully crafted but fragile facade and concluded that Obama is an unqualified, inexperienced ideologue, totally uninterested in the views and expectations of a majority of Americans, that has taken their beloved country down a side road, a dead end that terminates in a sheer faced cliff with no guard rail. And her own behavior and the often self inflicted breach of her FLOTUS facade hasn’t endeared her to those “ugly, racist, bigoted” Americans either. Call it brides remorse bolstered by a generous dose of reality.
But she need not worry. Her and her husband will definitely have a place in future history books which, if the present trend continues, will no doubt portray Obama as one of the greatest, if inexplicably misunderstood, Presidents elected too late to prevent America’s demise caused by the previous President, that nincompoop George W. Bush.
“She and her husband,” not “her”
Before you write “she makes me sick” look first to your own mirror.
None of you have a clue what she thinks or what she is like.
The Daily Mail is England’s equivalent to the Enquirer.
It’s trash, which all of you just love.
So long as it puts down the people you hate.
By the way, if you hate something, it owns you.
‘In hatred as in love, we grow like the thing we brood upon. What we loathe, we graft into our very soul’~Mary Renault
Thank you.
Mr. Soros has your paycheck ready.
“Mr. Soros has your paycheck ready.”
One of the best lines I’ve read…and unfortunately accurate as well.
True enough!
That’s why I make it a point not to expend such a valuable commodity like hate on someone the likes of Michelle!
Let if suffice that I (and I suppose many others) have taken the full measure of her character and found it very wanting.
‘We love without reason, and without reason we hate’ ~Jean-francois Regnard
I start my opinion of individuals from a neutral perspective. It is only through their
actions that I develop an opinion. Through your inane quotes you totaly ignore all of
the actions of Mrs Obama, and her projection of her persona through the media.
Up here in Canada we have a show called the Trailer Park Boys. One of the characters, Ricky,
is always screwing up, and then he attempts to deflect blame by stating that, “You know we really
can’t tell who’s wrong, so let’s forget about it”.
Seems to me you’re attempting the Full Ricky through your last two postings.
Hey there, sweaty – I’ve got a Jean-Francois for you:
So before you presume to lecture us, consider the premises of your ideas and the nature of the master you serve.
Brilliant quote, one of the best I’ve seen in months.
Michelle, you don’t have to take this crap!…leave now, and take that rug with you…
It just goes to prove the theory that money can’t buy class.
Goodness knows she has been given enough of ours to give it a good test.
*snort*
So … Carla Bruni is now a credible witness?
Get real. I can actually imagine somebody saying something like this as a way to break the ice, as informal humor (Oh, you can’t imagine the day I’ve had – kick your shoes off and lets have some coffee). Of course, that would require that the listener understood the intent. I CAN’T imagine anyone seriously unburdening themselves with a serious complaint to a complete stranger like that – particularly one as dubious as france’s first lady.
This authorized biography is an ego-piece by a woman who didn’t like the last biography written about here. That should be a warning bell.
Well said….amazing…how easily we have become what we hated what others were doing to our last president. Maybe we can hold the higher ground but in regards to the comments on this blog…maybe not.
The damage has been done even if it was a joke because the quote fits what many believe she might say. “Fake, but accurate”, as Dan Rather would say.
MO has had all the benefits of affirmative action, has had great paying jobs, has been made out to be the black Jackie O by the press, etc., and she’s still mad.
I’ll bet there are lots of parts of being First Lady that stink, but so do many parts of being a political wife at any level. Now she’s at the top of the heap, so why not chill out and enjoy it? No one expects gratitude, but a dignified silence would be nice.
Hell Michelle,its not the army,your’e free to leave any time you want.The sooner the better,and Take Barry with you please.
When the Obamas had been in the WH for about two weeks, they left and went to read a book to some hapless school children. Michelle asked one of the kids “Do you know who I am?” and he said “No.” That set her back a bit. During the course of that visit, she asked the kids what they wanted to be. One little girl said “I want to be the First Lady!”, to which Michelle replied, “It doesn’t pay much.” That is when my disgust for the woman was born. Because of that comment, and the way she said it, I believe Carla Sarkozy. YMMV.
She hates the role but loves the perks. Boy does she ever! Is there any doubt in anyone’s mind what this woman thinks? She has more testosterone that the boob she married and to have all that fascism chained 24/7 must be hell on wheels. Most of her photos reveal a hostile, glaring, contemptuous face, with a permanent expression of disdain. Well…I don’t like her in the role much either. I suspect a lot of Americans agree with her on that one.
That Michelle sure has a wide stance. I wonder what’s going on…
Give Michelle a break, she is trying.
-VERY TRYING
Actually, they can put her in charge of the Middle East Peace process. After hearing for days all of the Whining and Sniping both sides will sue for peace – just to get out of the room.
The real problem is, this White House gig is the first time either of the Obamas has had to do anything more than just show up.
Mike009 unleashes The Flying Cloud from the top rope!
http://wp.me/pjGfE-4ad
Hey Michelle
It’s been hell for us too
the sooner you and your dumb@$$ husband go back to Chicago, the better things will be for all of us