Is Michelle Obama About to Fade?

Rumor has it, the aspiring First Lady and spouse of Barack Obama will be seen much less on the campaign trail and much more at home raising her young daughters. The question being asked by many isn't "why", but "why did it take so long?" She has tried to position herself in a way very similar to Hillary Clinton when her husband ran for President in 1992. Hillary, too, had to tone it down after promises of getting "two for the price of one" started to turn off voters.

Michelle Obama has, in many respects, been the Republicans best weapon. Here are just a few of the controversies surrounding her:

* Following electoral success of her husband, Michelle declared that she was proud of her country "for the first time." There are things our government does that makes me less than happy, but I have always been proud of this country. This is a sentiment shared by the vast majority of Americans and her statement has continued to haunt her.

* She has actually complained about the high costs of her and Barack Obama's student loans. She has been privileged to go to Princeton University to do her undergraduate work and went on to graduate from Harvard Law School. Meanwhile, her poor husband received his BA from Columbia University and went on to Harvard Law. As a result, they have made millions in salaries, books, and he had relationships that contributed to a successful career in politics. For some reason, I'm not hearing violins.

* Finally there is the statement reported in New Yorker that largely slipped under the radar screen. According to the magazine: "(Michelle) Obama begins with a broad assessment of life in America in 2008, and life is not good: we're a divided country, we're a country that is 'just downright mean,' we are 'guided by fear,' we're a nation of cynics, sloths, and complacents. 'We have become a nation of struggling folks who are barely making it every day,' she said, as heads bobbed in the pews. 'Folks are just jammed up, and it's gotten worse over my lifetime. And, doggone it, I'm young. Forty-four!'"

It will be interesting to see if Michelle Obama attempts to reinvent herself. In the mean time, the above examples begs the question, why didn't they have her "fade" long before today?

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Kevin Price is Host of the Price of Business (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) and Publisher of the Houston Business Review. Hear the show live and online at HoustonBusinessShow.com. Visit the archive of past shows here.

The Message Behind New Yorker's Obama Cover

The recent cover of New Yorker Magazine, a publication noted for a liberal bent and elitist flare, shocked most readers this month with a satarical depiction of Mr. and Mrs. Obama celebrating their victory in the Oval Office of the White House. In the drawing, Barack Obama is wearing a turban and his wife is sporting an Afro and carrying a machine gun. Meanwhile, in the background you see an American flag burning in the fire place and a picture of Osama Bin Laden hanging on the wall.

Both the Obama and McCain campaignd have declared the cover "offensive" and there is an expectation of an apology. It was suppose to be funny, even outrageous, but for some reason it has struck a nerve. New Yorker Editor David Remnick told the Huffington Post that “Obviously I wouldn’t have run a cover just to get attention — I ran the cover because I thought it had something to say. What I think it does is hold up a mirror to the prejudice and dark imaginings about Barack Obama’s — both Obamas’ — past, and their politics, I can’t speak for anyone else’s interpretations, all I can say is that it combines a number of images that have been propagated, not by everyone on the right but by some, about Obama’s supposed ‘lack of patriotism’ or his being ‘soft on terrorism’ or the idiotic notion that somehow Michelle Obama is the second coming of the Weathermen or most violent Black Panthers. That somehow all this is going to come to the Oval Office.”

The same magazine has depicted Bush as a maid serving Dick Cheney (reported by Fox News) and even a "Brokeback Mountain" comparison between the President and Vice President. Bush and Cheney wisely ignored the comparisons because they are laughable. But Obama has been up in arms, almost as though the satire hits a little too close to home. Many are convinced that he is protesting too much for his own good.

Many Americans actually believe Obama is Muslim (12 percent according to Newsweek). Bloomberg was early in reporting Obama's relationship with "William Ayers, a former member of the radical group the Weather Underground who is now a professor of education at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Ayers donated $200 in 2001 to Obama’s Illinois state Senate campaign and served with him from 1999 to 2002 on the board of the Woods Fund, an anti-poverty group."

"The Weather Underground carried out a series of bombings in the early 1970s — including the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon. While Ayers was never prosecuted for those attacks, he told the New York Times in an interview published Sept. 11, 2001, that 'I don’t regret setting bombs.'
Bill Burton, Obama’s spokesman, said Ayers 'does not have a role on the campaign.' Ayers said he had no comment on his relationship with Obama." These are the type of stories that have over shadowed Obama for months and would have likely derailed his campaign if they came out early. I'm sure this will keep Hillary Clinton anxiously waiting in the wings.

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Kevin Price is Host of the Houston Business Show (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) and Publisher of the Houston Business Review. Hear the show live and online at HoustonBusinessShow.com. Visit the archive of past shows here.