Byron York, that master of the deadpan, tells this story in today’s Examiner:
One of the things that my mom always said — because people ask her all the time, ‘What did you do to create Michelle Obama?’” Mrs. Obama told the audience. “And the one thing my mom has always said, and I agree, she said, ‘You know, Michelle and Barack aren’t new.’ She says, ‘Michelle and Barack are not unique.’ She says, ‘There are thousands of Michelle and Barack Obamas all over this nation, in neighborhoods and communities all over the place. And she is absolutely right. She is absolutely right. There is no magic to us.”
Reminds me of a favorite joke of Norman Podhoretz’s:
In a village in eastern Europe, a great rebbe is dying. His disciples surround his bed, wailing as their teacher slowly fades away.
“Who will inspire us if the rebbe should leave us?” one asks aloud. There is none like him for holiness!”
“Who will teach us?” laments another. “There is none like him for learning!”
“Who will guide us?” keens a third. “There is none like him for righteousness!”
The disciples succumb to protracted sobbing. The rabbi’s eyes slowly open. He props himself up on an elbow to glare at the group. “And about my humility, you have nothing to say?”
11 responses so far
1 ottovbvs // Nov 3, 2009 at 9:48 am
…….Obviously pining for the flying suits and phony carrier landings David…….it’s all totally glutinous of course but then much of American popular culture is glutinous……..you may not like it but the fact is America is a matriarchy and the Obama’s come off as a hell of lot more real than the previous occupants of 1600 PA AV…….Good luck to you and York in trying to ding Michelle with anyone other than the breathers.
2 sinz54 // Nov 3, 2009 at 10:06 am
ottovbs:
Real?
Obama never worked in the private sector in a real job in a real company in his entire life. He was a community organizer, a civil rights lawyer, and taught constitutional law. That’s not exactly representative of the background of 90% of Americans. It isn’t even representative of your own background.
Ross Perot was a heck of a lot more “real” than Obama.
3 sinz54 // Nov 3, 2009 at 10:09 am
Today’s New York Times had an article on voters in Iowa. There at least, this Obama cult worship has worn off. The reason? Rough politics as usual. The Obama admininstration made a big mistake by descending to the level of LBJ-style blackjack partisanship. He had attracted a lot of voters who thought he was beyond all that, and would work to change all that.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/us/politics/03year.html?_r=1&hp
4 balconesfault // Nov 3, 2009 at 10:24 am
Obama never worked in the private sector in a real job in a real company in his entire life.
Per the LA Times:
Obama arrived in Chicago in 1993 with a degree from Harvard Law School and was hired as a junior lawyer at the firm then known as Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Gallard. He helped represent clients in civil and voting rights matters and wrongful firings, argued a case before a federal appellate court, and took the lead in writing a suit to expand voter registration.
But the firm also handled routine legal matters and real estate. Obama spent about 70% of his time on voting rights, civil rights and employment, generally as a junior associate. The rest of his time was spent on matters related to real estate transactions, filing incorporation papers and defending clients against minor lawsuits.
5 Oldskool // Nov 3, 2009 at 10:42 am
More sour grapes. The Obamas are magical in the same way JFK was, tons of charms and smarts and a gorgeous family to boot. I think it gets under the skin of the Right that they young charmers are usually Dems while Repubs always seem to nominate everyone’s grumpy uncle; Nixon, Reagan, Bush, Dole, McCain, etc,… the guys you could see yelling at kids to get off their lawn.
6 balconesfault // Nov 3, 2009 at 11:02 am
Repubs always seem to nominate everyone’s grumpy uncle; Nixon, Reagan, Bush, Dole, McCain, etc
ummm … Reagan was most certainly not everyone’s grumpy uncle.
7 oldgal // Nov 3, 2009 at 11:04 am
Love them or hate them, it would be a better world if we would all exhibit the graciousness and manners of the Obamas.
8 Kevin B // Nov 3, 2009 at 5:22 pm
I wouldn’t call GWB a grumpy uncle either, at least not in 2000. Cheney was pretty grumpy, though.
9 Oldskool // Nov 3, 2009 at 6:06 pm
balconesfault // Nov 3, 2009 at 11:02 am
“ummm … Reagan was most certainly not everyone’s grumpy uncle.”
He joked around but he had a mean streak. He let people die because they were gay and he thought they deserved it, after all, and he didn’t even get along with his own kids.
10 MI-GOPer // Nov 3, 2009 at 10:32 pm
“there is no magic to us”.
It strikes me that maybe Michele has been handled for so long, by so many YesMaam’ers that she really doesn’t appreciate how utterly disconnected she is from reality. She is a charcoaled or watercolored version of JackieK –trying to appear to be “it” but lacking the true character and substance that “it” requires of those who pursue the fleeting vainglory.
For someone who doesn’t admit to the supreme ego that drives her, she seems a fake equal of her hubbie. I’m wondering why she’s turned her back on the black underclass and working poor in exchange for fine dining and presidential flatware. I’m wondering why she’s forgotten all those poor, suffering people of Chicago or the inner city DC kids who had a chance at the same brass ring she grabbed onto a few years ago but can’t because her hubbie done axed the innovative voucher program for the poor youth? I’m wondering why Michele has seen fit to forget about the starving masses in Africa while having staff grow deisgner vegetables on raised beds at the White House?
As for oldskool’s standard and discredited far Left, out-of-touch, San Francisco-valued line of: “(Reagan) let people die because they were gay and he thought they deserved it”, no amount of appropriate scorn can do that asshat line of your’s justice. What an ass.
11 SFTor1 // Nov 4, 2009 at 12:36 am
There’s surely no “magical negro” reference made here, no? Yes?
As far as GWB’s private experience is concerned: he failed at everything he tried, except help get the new Rangers stadium funded at the taxpayer’s expense.
The Obamas seem to be pretty OK to me.
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