'Special Report' Panel on Michelle Obama

[SteveLaura 0]

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MICHELLE OBAMA, WIFE OF SEN. BARACK OBAMA: And let me tell you something: for the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country, because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.

CINDY MCCAIN, WIFE OF SEN. JOHN MCCAIN: I'm proud of my country. I don't know about you, if you heard those words earlier — I'm very proud of my country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIT HUME, HOST: Some thoughts on this controversy involving Michelle Obama and, indirectly at least, her husband, from Fred Barnes, Executive Editor of "The Weekly Standard," Mort Kondracke, Executive Editor of "Roll Call," and Juan Williams, Senior Correspondent of National Public Radio, FOX News contributors all.

Today the Obama campaign, not in the person of Obama and not in the person of Michelle Obama, but in the person of a spokesperson, put out a statement today clarifying what Michelle Obama meant.

"Of course Michelle is proud of her country. What she meant is that she's really proud of this moment because for the first time in a long time, thousands of Americans who have never participated in politics before are coming out in record numbers to build a grassroots movement for change."

This, obviously, as we saw, Cindy McCain didn't waste any time responding to this, presumably with a bit of a prompt from someone in the McCain camp, or maybe not. What about it, Juan?

JUAN WILLIAMS, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: People have been waiting for Senator Obama to have some sort of gaffe or misstep, because he has just run such an excellent campaign. And here comes a gaffe from Michelle Obama.

Look, she is a 44-year-old black woman, and there's no way that a black woman in America who is 44 years old can't be proud of the incredible progress this country has shown in terms of inclusiveness. We've got women on the Supreme Court now. We have woman as secret Secretary of State, a black woman, in fact, if you haven't noticed.

And the idea is — I believe she went to Princeton and then Harvard, and she was at Sidley and Austin, a major American law firm. That is just not possible in the previous generation.

So I guess the best thing to do is say give her the benefit of the doubt. She was talking about America being hopeful and crossing racial lines and showing support for her husband.

HUME: It didn't seem, though, in the way it was phrased when you see it there that it was a hurried comment made in the heat of a rally. I mean, she articulated it in a rather measured pace, and it sounded like "For the first time in my adult life I'm proud of my country."

Mort, your thoughts?

MORT KONDRACKE, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "ROLL CALL": This is a pattern to her. She is the downbeat to his upbeat. And she said on other occasions that the soul of America is broken.

And when she talks about her own past, she can only remember, seemingly, the people who told her she couldn't go to Princeton or she couldn't go to Harvard Law School, instead of the people who obviously made it possible.

If her grades — as she said, she couldn't have made it if she had been judged just on her test results. Well, if she had lousy test results and she still got into Princeton and Harvard Law School, then somebody believed in her. And why isn't she thanking them and saying that this shows what America is all about?

I mean, he has a totally different sensibility from hers. He has a positive, upbeat, optimistic sensibility.

HUME: Why would he then not intervene here? Do they think —

KONDRACKE: I think they want to make as little of this as they can.

HUME: Isn't it striking though that the response to this came not from the Clinton campaign, which was still arguing about whether Obama committed plagiarism by using some words from supporter Governor Deval Patrick, but it came, instead, from Cindy McCain, not the Clinton camp.

What does that tell you, Fred, if anything?

FRED BARNES, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "THE WEEKLY STANDARD": I don't think they thought there was any problem with it, at first, the Obama campaign.

HUME: Why wouldn't the Clinton campaign jump on this?

BARNES: Because they were letting the press handle it, and we're doing it. So I don't think they needed to do it. I mean, it was almost immediately jumped on by bloggers and others —

HUME: Mostly on the right, wouldn't you agree?

BARNES: Not entirely. I don't think so, but OK, maybe so.

Look, they don't want to be accused again of pushing race into the campaign. I mean, the Clinton campaign is very skittish about that, so —

HUME: So they attack him as a plagiarist, not as a non-patriot? I don't understand.

BARNES: I don't understand it either, but I think you have it right.

In context, she went on to say some other things about how Americans are told that we dwell on what can't work and what we can't do and what we can't change, and we're passing this on to a new generation, and it's dividing us in communities, and so on.

I mean, I really don't think that's the America that she is experienced, actually, particularly when you read about her parents, and with their expectations for her, and pushing her ahead, and demanding that she excel, and so on.

She doesn't sound like the person — her career clashes with these words.

WILLIAMS: One more thing is that she also said she's not sure she can support any Democrat but her husband. I'm not sure that's smart thing to say at this point.

HUME: Let me ask you this question — is this sort of a one-day deal and over, or are we going to hear more about Michelle Obama? Does he need to say something?

WILLIAMS: He needs to say something or she needs to say something. They have to put out the fire.

Look, Cindy — you were right. Cindy McCain making the comment is evidence that there are a lot of people who don't want a Democrat in the White House who are trying to make much of this. That is problematic.

KONDRACKE: Look, she's the wife of the candidate. Wives of candidates, unless they do something totally outrageous, tend not to be the story.

The story is still that Obama is still ahead in delegates, he is probably going to get further ahead today. And if Hillary Clinton doesn't have a blowout in Ohio, Texas, and Pennsylvania, he's going to still be ahead in delegates, and then it's going to be over.

WILLIAMS: It's about making him out to be this terrible liberal. They're going to use this in an ad.

BARNES: Sure, Republicans will use it. "The National Journal" said he's the most liberal member of the Senate.

Mort, sure, it's about delegates, and so on, but this is an important player in the campaign, Michelle Obama — she's on the cover of Newsweek this week. The fact is that this speech, this isn't the first time she has given it, the one in Wisconsin. She has to get a new speech.

Could/should the Clinton camp attack Barack Obama as a non-patriot, considering that the words they would take issue with were from his wife's mouth?

[Jason-Sasha 1]

I think this woman is doing nothing to help him win. does anyone remember how she introduced her husband to the crowd when they announced he had won the Senate seat for Illinois recently?? She said something like....."your next Senator, my baby-daddy...Barack Obama".

My baby-daddy??? I don't think this is the kind of first lady speak this nation needs or wants. he should keep her hidden from the public. And for her to say that she's only NOW proud of her country...hmmm. He's not going to win the presidency. Sorry.

[almaty 19]

spoken like a true republican

[Alex+R 0]

I LOVE Michelle. Obviously I'm not going to vote based on First Lady/Laddie, but I really, really like her. I can relate to her and what she says, and she commands a lot of respect when she speaks.

Also, on topic, could the commentators be any more racist? She should be proud of the country because it allowed her to go to law school? That's like saying I should be proud of the Ivy League because it finally let Jews matriculate in the mid-20th century.

[garya505 2]

I LOVE Michelle. Obviously I'm not going to vote based on First Lady/Laddie, but I really, really like her. I can relate to her and what she says, and she commands a lot of respect when she speaks.

Also, on topic, could the commentators be any more racist? She should be proud of the country because it allowed her to go to law school? That's like saying I should be proud of the Ivy League because it finally let Jews matriculate in the mid-20th century.

... or like saying she is proud of the country because it finally let a Black man run for President?

Edited February 20, 2008 by garya505

[Ban Hammer 13,252]

I LOVE Michelle. Obviously I'm not going to vote based on First Lady/Laddie, but I really, really like her. I can relate to her and what she says, and she commands a lot of respect when she speaks.

Also, on topic, could the commentators be any more racist? She should be proud of the country because it allowed her to go to law school? That's like saying I should be proud of the Ivy League because it finally let Jews matriculate in the mid-20th century.

i'm sure they were doing that prior to the 20th century.

[no name 1]

I LOVE Michelle. Obviously I'm not going to vote based on First Lady/Laddie, but I really, really like her. I can relate to her and what she says, and she commands a lot of respect when she speaks.

Also, on topic, could the commentators be any more racist? She should be proud of the country because it allowed her to go to law school? That's like saying I should be proud of the Ivy League because it finally let Jews matriculate in the mid-20th century.

... or like saying she is proud of the country because it finally let a Black man run for President?

[Mags 112]

I LOVE Michelle Obama. I think she's has a great way of speaking in public and she seems to have a heart. What p!sses me off is this constant word twisting of peoples' speeches. Looking for insults towards the USA that just aren't there or turning someones' words around to mean something totally different than intended - it's low, really low, imo.

I say go Michelle, she ain't a disgrace to Barack Obama, she's a credit to him. I'm fully expecting to hear a news report on how their children are dressed next and how bad it is for America.

My 2cents.

Edited February 20, 2008 by Mags

[garya505 2]

Maybe she really meant to say "really proud of my county", but she explicitly said "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 don't have an opinion about here either way since I don't know her, but that's pretty clear, and doesn't seem to be a slip of the tongue. Why would she go out of way to say "for the first time in my adult life". That's seems like an odd thing to say. And, she never had any hope before? She's been an adult for what, 30 years or so? I dunno, it just sounds odd to me.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

This the same fluff piece from yesterday.

I'm not sure I see why its such a big deal to be honest.

Did anyone make this much fuss when George Bush senior commented on how much he hates broccoli?

[no name 1]

This the same fluff piece from yesterday.

I'm not sure I see why its such a big deal to be honest.

Did anyone make this much fuss when George Bush senior commented on how much he hates broccoli?

Hardly the same thing.

Plus that was pre-9/11. Patriotism is *in* now, dontcha know?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

This the same fluff piece from yesterday.

I'm not sure I see why its such a big deal to be honest.

Did anyone make this much fuss when George Bush senior commented on how much he hates broccoli?

Hardly the same thing.

Plus that was pre-9/11. Patriotism is *in* now, dontcha know?

Who cares? Honestly. They're both throwaway statements.

Surely a better use could be made of the time, rather than dissecting some sort of "sinister intent" behind every last syllable.

[Alex+R 0]

I LOVE Michelle. Obviously I'm not going to vote based on First Lady/Laddie, but I really, really like her. I can relate to her and what she says, and she commands a lot of respect when she speaks.

Also, on topic, could the commentators be any more racist? She should be proud of the country because it allowed her to go to law school? That's like saying I should be proud of the Ivy League because it finally let Jews matriculate in the mid-20th century.

... or like saying she is proud of the country because it finally let a Black man run for President?

I don't think that's what she's saying. Her comment isn't entirely about race. It's about letting a candidate like her husband get as far as he has.

CHARLES: Jews were allowed and then, when they became to numerous, were at most institutions limited to a certain percentage. And then further limited Like country clubs.

[no name 1]

This the same fluff piece from yesterday.

I'm not sure I see why its such a big deal to be honest.

Did anyone make this much fuss when George Bush senior commented on how much he hates broccoli?

Hardly the same thing.

Plus that was pre-9/11. Patriotism is *in* now, dontcha know?

Who cares? Honestly. They're both throwaway statements.

Surely a better use could be made of the time, rather than dissecting some sort of "sinister intent" behind every last syllable.

ah, but it's American Politics! That's how we roll. Stealing elections one year, shutting out delegates another year, mud slinging every year.

I LOVE Michelle. Obviously I'm not going to vote based on First Lady/Laddie, but I really, really like her. I can relate to her and what she says, and she commands a lot of respect when she speaks.

Also, on topic, could the commentators be any more racist? She should be proud of the country because it allowed her to go to law school? That's like saying I should be proud of the Ivy League because it finally let Jews matriculate in the mid-20th century.

... or like saying she is proud of the country because it finally let a Black man run for President?

I don't think that's what she's saying. Her comment isn't entirely about race. It's about letting a candidate like her husband get as far as he has.

(because he's black)

[Ban Hammer 13,252]

CHARLES: Jews were allowed and then, when they became to numerous, were at most institutions limited to a certain percentage. And then further limited Like country clubs.

ok, who are you really? the alex i know wouldn't make those kinda mistakes....