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Feminist advocate Susan Estrich works in many fields: as a lawyer, professor, political operative, author, and news commentator. She was educated ...
Read more about Susan Estrich.
Feminist advocate Susan Estrich works in many fields: as a lawyer, professor, political operative, author, and news commentator. She was educated ...
Read more about Susan Estrich.
The Wives
Susan Estrich
"Cindy Unleashed" screamed the headline on the Drudge Report. Did
Cindy McCain really go after Michelle Obama? Not exactly, but close
enough. There was only one right answer to the question Mrs. McCain
was asked by Kate Snow on ABC's "Good Morning America" this week about
whether Mrs. McCain was "insulted" by Mrs. Obama's comment some time
ago that it was only with her husband's run for president that she was
"really proud" of her country. The right answer was the one Laura Bush
gave: Leave Mrs. Obama alone. Mrs. Obama already has explained ad
nauseam that she didn't mean to say that she never had been proud of
her country before. She misspoke, which human beings who are in the
spotlight 24/7 do. She is not the candidate. Her husband is.
That's what Cindy McCain should have said because the last thing she herself wants to be is fodder in this campaign. In fact, what she did say gave the press an occasion to revisit the issue and McCain's opponents an occasion to remind people of her own vulnerabilities. "Everyone has their own experience," Mrs. McCain said in response to the "insult" question. "I don't know why she said what she said. All I know is that I have always been proud of my country."
Everyone has their own experience? How about your experience, Cindy, using drugs or reading about your husband's alleged affair in the newspaper or charging more on your credit cards than 99 percent of Americans make in a year? Are those experiences to be the stuff that my Democratic friends make hay with? Is that what you really want? People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
A majority of Americans are clearly eager to see a new man at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., but I'd be surprised if the numbers were even close in terms of replacing the first lady. George Bush may have worn out his welcome, but Laura Bush continues to show the tact, decency and good judgment that have made her a popular and rarely criticized first lady. Michelle Obama, guest hosting on "The View," said she was "touched" by the first lady's defense of her and was taking some "cues" from the current inhabitant of the White House on how to succeed in the role she hopes to assume. Cindy McCain would do well to follow Laura Bush's lead, as well.
Michelle Obama gave ammunition to her husband's opponents with her comments at that rally in Wisconsin. But they need to think twice before they use it. Turning the wives into the issue in this campaign is a strategy that will leave everyone covered with mud for no good reason.
We have been to this movie before. In 1992, Hillary Clinton, then in headbands, was the object of more criticism than her husband. From her looks to her law practice to her loyalty to her husband, the former first lady had a bull's-eye on her back, made worse, of course, by her version of the patriotism comments: the explanation that she could have stayed home baking chocolate chip cookies all day but chose to practice law instead, which led to questions about possible conflicts of interest, given that her husband was the governor of the state. At the time, Hillary described herself as a "transitional figure," but it is easy to see Michelle Obama as Hillary without the headband, the strong, powerful, well-educated and ambitious wife of the candidate who some people, at least, find more threatening and less likable than they do the candidate himself. At the end of the day, the point is: So what? People don't vote for vice president, and they don't vote for first lady. If they did, Gerald Ford couldn't have lost, and Ronald Reagan couldn't have won. If the '92 election had been a referendum on who should be first lady instead of who should be president, Barbara Bush would have won it for her team in a walk.
Google Cindy McCain and there's no end to the garbage you'll get. I have no idea how much is true and how much isn't, and I don't want to know. Like most Americans, I'm more interested in what the husbands have to say. And what they both should say loud and clear is what Laura Bush has said already: Leave the wives out of it. Kids, too. And girlfriends, if any.
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To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
Copyright 2008 Creators Syndicate Inc.
This news arrived on: 06/20/2008
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Posted Comments:
06-23-2008 14:22
Julia Waridi wrote:
The wives
Let Michelle Obama alone! Don't lie in waiting to pick up on her! Michelle is incredibly a fine lady!
06-23-2008 00:14
Harry wrote:
Gaffs
Gaffs are like mistakes, everyone makes them. Wives are not the question! The candidates, their ideas, their plans,their visions,their experience,their ability to get things done; thats what matters! I hope that all the voters will investigate the candidates, not just listen to the media presentations snipets. Wake up people! Do your own investigation! It's your duty as a citizen, to vote. Please do it wisely!
06-22-2008 19:03
LIFESEED wrote:
ALIPOO
Your remarks reflect those of someone who is and always shall be indoctrinated in hatred of anyone who is blacks, or has an higher education or income or intellegence (which most are) than you!
I say to you, you are an idiot! If only for once you would use your brain for the capacity of reason and engage it, you would be a great person.
I say to you, you are an idiot! If only for once you would use your brain for the capacity of reason and engage it, you would be a great person.
06-22-2008 18:36
Frelu wrote:
Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama besides her "first time in my adult life I am proud of my country" has said other things which things that reveal her true feelings, " this is a mean country" coming from somebody that went to an Ivy League school and a prestigious law school ( which she did not pay for it) and earning a quarter million dollars a year
06-22-2008 17:05
goldenwren wrote:
Cindy
Not only all of the things daid above--but she looks like a plastic Barbie Doll after having strenuous play by a chld--old, brittle, unreal.
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