Previous post
Next post
It’s a nice break from her talk about how Americans are so ignorant, so mean. And she had said before she’d never before been proud of her country in her entire adult life. Well, that’s all apparently changed.
According to Michelle, she actually met some real Americans and was shocked to know that they had values! They cared about their kids! They were nice!
Oprah Winfrey: How are you a different woman today than you were when Barack Obama announced his candidacy in 2007?
Michelle Obama: I’m more optimistic. More hopeful. It comes from traveling all over America and connecting with so many different people. And this was long before anyone thought Barack had a chance. This was the kindness of strangers. I think we should all have to get to know one another around kitchen tables. It changed me. It’s helped me to give other people the benefit of the doubt.
Winfrey: What did you see that changed you?
Obama: I saw our shared values. We fundamentally want the same things for ourselves and for each other. We want our kids to be safe and to grow up with some resources and aspire to a slightly better life than ours. No one’s looking for a handout. People just want fairness and opportunity.
Winfrey: That’s so good to hear. Because you know what? We live in an “American Idol” culture where it seems like everyone just wants to be in the spotlight.
Obama: That’s not the America I saw. People value their communities. They’re rooting for one another. Even in places where I thought people wouldn’t accept or relate to me, I always walked out feeling like, “Wow — that was fun.” That changed me. And it helped prepare me for this. Because I think if you’re going to be first lady, you have to believe in the possibility of what this country stands for. You have to see it in action and know what you’re working toward.
Two thoughts.
One, it’s interesting to hear Michelle Obama talk about real Americans! as if they were some kind of specimen to be studied at the zoo, or some new civilization found on a distant island no one’s ever visited before. Reading the interview, I kept getting this feeling that interaction with us common folk in Flyover Country was something Michelle Obama had never before encountered, and it was just so shocking to find out that we were normal.
Which brings me to point number two. Why is it that so many liberals are always so shocked to find out positive things about Americans? They always seem so surprised to find out that Americans are good, intelligent, generous, caring, compassionate people. Michelle Obama had the same attitude. It was apparently such a shock to her, it changed her entire worldview. She’s more optimistic now! She’s happier, more hopeful! And all because she found out that, hey, maybe Americans aren’t bitter, ignorant, and mean.
Imagine that.
Hat Tip: Gateway Pundit
A couple of thoughts on this.
First, I think what Michelle Obama says is a sham. I still believe that she thinks that most Americans are nasty, brutish and racist. That’s been her view all her life and she said as much in her thesis at Princeton. What I think is going on is that she’s being coached big time on what to say, especially after her “for the first time in my life..,” comment back during the campaign. Notice how you didn’t hear much from her after that, except in very controlled situations. For her to say what she said on Oprah doesn’t mean a lot. Oprah’s practically in the same category and won’t even try to ask tough questions.
Secondly, this concerns liberals in general. Let’s face it, most liberals are grouped in the cities. They stay in their little communities with little to no interaction other than themselves. They make a lot of assumptions about life around them because they believe all of their empty rhetoric. So Cassy’s right when they view people outside their own little bubble like it’s a zoo. That’s because they’ve been trained to think that way. They look at the rest of Americans as “noble savages.”
Rob Farrington says: I could have told Michelle that, and I’m not even American.
I’ve been to the US three times now (I’ve been to South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama so far…Illinois doesn’t count, because I only ever saw the bit outside the airport where you can have a smoke), and not ONCE did I ever see a bald kid with squinty eyes playing a banjo, or someone in a white hood burning a cross on a lawn. I didn’t meet anyone who was married to their sister, either.
Most of the people I met also spoke English better than I do, which was a little disconcerting, considering the fact that I’m erm…English.
Maybe she should get out more often.
WayneB says: I’m kind of between Mat and Cassy on this. I think she actually did get out and was surprised to find that people are a lot nicer and more considerate in flyover country than she thought they would be. However, I don’t think that actually changed her attitude any.
Rob – I think that Alabama, because of all the bad press and jokes about intermarriage, have reluctantly decided to forego the practice of marrying brothers and sisters. First cousins are still fair game, though. Heh. 😛
That interview reminds me of when Hillary!!11!! discovered that the Whight House janitors were ‘real people’ too- and wanted every one to know that.
“Most of the people I met also spoke English better than I do, which was a little disconcerting, considering the fact that I’m erm…English.”
Funny stuff Rob–I am sure you heard the phrase “yall” and perhaps even “geet?” (translation: did you eat yet?) during your Southern visits.
Phil Taylor says: I’m a normal noble savage… kool!
Reminder: We post on your site to let you know that we read every blog listed on our site for content and that your particular post was recommended to visitors on our site. Our main propose is to help get your posts and blog more visitors. We are hoping to support like minded conservatives in getting their very important visions to a wider audience. Thanks, http://aresay.blogspot.com/search/label/1
JW M says: *IF* she was sincere about this it says a lot about the people she usually associates with. Get away from Reverend Wright, the Jesse Jacksons, et al and find what America really is.
Bobv says: To be fair, when the only people you meet are liberals it’s easy to develop a negative view of humanity.
Amelia in Tx says: Michelle Obama: It’s helped me to give other people the benefit of the doubt.
Wha? She’s how old and she’s just NOW learning to do this?
This statement implies that up until recently she has attributed all kinds of malicious motives to other people’s actions. Malicious motives like “racism,” maybe?
I don’t think she felt all Americans were evil. She could have been in a lifestyle where people were nasty, brutal, mean, and pretty much a dog-eat-dog world. I get shocked anytime I do meet someone nice. All my life I’ve only met heartless people, even my family’s heartless. I can name the people I think are kind and I’m not even on that list because dealing what heartless people made me pretty mean myself. I don’t think it’s Americans though, I think it’s just the world. And relating to Michelle Obama, I’m pretty sure she wasn’t born in a nice lifestyle and she probably had to deal with battles especially being a black woman in our society.
But yeah overall to ask your question, I don’t think it’s a liberal thing that is shocked to meet nice people in America, I think it’s more of a class thing or a raised thing. I’m poor and I’ve faced that and I don’t know many nice people and the way I live, I just play the game to get things and that means to be cruel to others just as they are to me and that’s why some people view America as a place of fucked up people. Or if you were raised like me and was told that all you were going to get through life is racist people, you were probably going to get raped or melosted in your life time, you were going to be judged by class, and the only way to live was to stick to yourself and walk alone, yeah you’ll have that world view on America. I’m not speaking really just for Michelle but the people or liberals that you’re saying.
barney thomas says: She is a racist piece of shit. Wonder how much she pays for Chrisco to keep that hair in place
Shaniquequa says: You don’t sound so rainbow go lucky yourself.
13 Comments