The Thrill is Gone

Mark Steyn has a bit of fun in this article with Barack Obama's press conference in which he throws Jeremiah Wright under the bus. The fun part here, from Steyn's point of view, is the self-absorption that has been revealed by this entire episode. Not only has Obama turned out to be something less than a holy messiah descending on a silver cloud from on high, but his wife has turned out to be a bit of a shrew as well. And I think we will be hearing a lot of fun sound clips from her in the not too distant future because she is too arrogant to keep quiet.

“Do you personally feel that the Reverend betrayed your husband?” asked Meredith Vieira on The Today Show.

“You know what I think, Meredith?” replied Michelle Obama. “We’ve got to move forward. You know, this conversation doesn’t help my kids.”

Hang on. “My” kids? You’re supposed to say “It’s about the future of all our children,” not “It’s about the future of my children” — whose parents happen to have a base salary of half a million bucks a year. But even this bungled cliché nicely captures the campaign’s self-absorption: Talking about Obama’s pastor is a distraction from talking about Obama’s kids.

By the way, the best response to Michelle’s “this conversation doesn’t help my kids” would be: “But entrusting their religious upbringing to Jeremiah Wright does?” Ah but, happily, Meredith Vieira isn’t that kind of interviewer.

Mrs. O is becoming a challenge for satirists. My radio pal Hugh Hewitt played a clip on his show of the putative First Lady identifying the real problem facing America:

“Like many young people coming out of college, with their MAs and BAs and PhDs and MPhs coming out so mired in debt that they have to forego the careers of their dreams, see, because when you’re mired in debt, you can’t afford to be a teacher or a nurse or social worker, or a pastor of a church, or to run a small non-profit organization, or to do research for a small community group, or to be a community organizer because the salaries that you’ll earn in those jobs won’t cover the cost of the degree that it took to get the job.”

So just remember, when you are about to question some aspect of Obama's fitness to be President, you should be quiet because it just isn't good for Michelle's kids.