Defending men from Michelle Obama

Oh, Lord. At what point does the Obama campaign finally put a muzzle on Michelle? It certainly works well for us on this side of the aisle (keep it up girl, you're doing great!), but when does Barack Obama start realizing that she's eclipsing Teresa Heinz Kerry in the dumb comments category?

Her newest idiotic drivel: that men are selfish and a mess!

In a 2004 interview with the Chicago Tribune, Michelle observed: "What I notice about men, all men, is that their order is me, my family, God is in there somewhere, but me is first. ... And, for women, me is fourth, and that's not healthy." This is not a radical observation: Get a half-dozen gals together with a few bottles of Beaujolais, and a similar theme will eventually emerge. (Trust me on this.)

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As for her on-the-trail patter, Michelle is far from a feminist bomb-thrower, instead relying heavily on conventional, even old-fashioned, material. She gigs Barack for being too much of a guy: messy, thoughtless, and only marginally competent when it comes to life maintenance. More than once, Michelle has laughed about how she assigns Barack easy-to-manage projects, like procuring balloons for their daughter's birthday party, rather than anything more involved, like picking out goodie bags--"You'd walk in there and wander around the aisles for an hour, and then your head would explode." It's a folksy, humanizing shtick guaranteed to have women nodding en masse in amused agreement precisely because it is such well-trod territory. Women have long bonded over the knowledge that their men, though masters of the universe, are a disaster on the home front. It is a semi-comic routine as old as marriage itself: Sure, my husband can slaughter a mammoth with his bare hands, but can he put his club away? Can he pick his loin cloth up off the floor? And God forbid I ask him to supervise the kids' birthday down at the tar pits. No one would make it home alive. The fact that Michelle tells such tales on her hubby may be a departure for political wives. Yet, for wives in general, it is anything but new.

It's interesting to me that she assumes that all men are crappy husbands like her husband apparently is. That entire article blasts him -- for never helping out around the house, for putting his family as his last priority, for being selfish, for being incompetent... it goes on and on and on.

The thing is, Michelle sweetums, that most men are not like your husband. I know few men who are all "me first, me first, me first!". Most men I know bust their balls to be able to provide for their family. Most men I know make unbelievable sacrifices for their family. Just because Barack Obama cannot -- or will not -- do the same for his family does not mean that all men do the same. I know man-bashing is tres chic these days, but good grief, when does it end?

Women, say it with me: MEN. ARE. NOT. THE. ENEMY.

And this "harmless" disparagement of husbands among wives is not harmless either, ladies. It may seem like it's just fun and games to put down your husband when you're gossiping with your girlfriends, but it isn't. Would you say that kind of stuff to his face? Would you tell your husband that he can't take care of himself if his life depended on it, that he's selfish and doesn't pay enough attention to his family? If you wouldn't, then don't go around laughing about it with your girlfriends without a second thought. Men seem stoic and unbreakable, but they aren't. If your husband heard you telling your girlfriends how selfish he is, how he never helps out around the house, how he's such a mess, how he can't take care of himself... even if you meant it in jest, I can guarantee you that it would kill him inside. And you, loving wife, would probably never even know it.

Yes, women do this all the time -- we gossip with our friends and put our men down without a second thought. But why do we do it? Why don't we talk up our husbands more? Why don't we tell our friends what a wonderful father he is, or how great he is about helping us out when we just can't do it anymore, or how supportive he is? Why is it we find it so much easier to talk down our men? We're obviously with them for a reason; we fell in love with them because of how wonderful they are. Why is it so hard to express that?

I wonder how Barack Obama feels hearing his wife say this kind of stuff about him, as well. And what's interesting to me is that, if his wife can't even trust him to be competent enough to run his own life, how in the world can he run the country?


Michelle's no Jackie O.

Hat Tip: Dr. Helen