It would certainly be unusual if Michelle Obama, a Harvard educated lawyer, did not have a lot of opinions on a great many issues. But to unearth everything the woman has ever said, including statements made in her undergraduate thesis at Princeton, in an attempt to characterize her as being unpatriotic or anti-white, is just plain absurd.
Michelle Obama, like Hillary Clinton before her, does not fit the mold of the traditional First Lady. Both are highly educated female lawyers who would be expected to have strong views of their own. And Hillary, during her husband's first campaign for the Presidency, faced similar demonization because she, too, was a "target-rich environment".
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/clinton/etc/03261992.html
Michelle Obama, in addition, does not fit the image of a traditional
white First Lady. Those who are uncomfortable with Barack Obama's racial heritage are likely to be even more disturbed with the image of a black First Lady, from a working-class African-American background, presiding over White House social functions. There's not much that Michelle Obama can do about her race, or about the vestiges of racism (or sexism) in our society, but those who do attempt to malign her on the basis of her race or background are likely to find themselves branded as bigots and excoriated in the mainstream media.
Michelle Obama does have an advantage in the fact that most Americans know little or nothing about her. The campaign has thus far displayed her mainly as a wife and mother, downplaying her accomplishments as a graduate of Harvard Law School and a vice president at the University of Chicago Medical Center. And Michelle Obama has solidified this impression by emphasizing that her main job, at this time, is being a mother to her daughters. She declines to discuss what her particular role as First Lady might be.
She has raised eyebrows in the past by mocking her husband:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20041755/print/1/displaymode/1098/
and, in the future, would probably be better off not making those kinds of statements, since they tend to negatively backfire on her husband. She seems to have already learned to knock it off. She's learning...
I think that Michelle Obama has to begin defining herself for the public before the Republicans begin doing that for her. She has a wonderful opportunity to promote "women's issues" on behalf of her husband, helping to win him votes, capitalizing on her own experience as a working mother, and drawing increased attention to needs for daycare, improvements in the educational system, rising food prices, etc.--all of which can help her connect to the average American woman, and vice versa. She can, in many ways, pick up where Hillary Clinton left off with female voters. She can be a very valuable political asset.
Although she is apparently a somewhat reluctant political wife (she reportedly tried to talk her husband out of running for the Senate), she is also a strong source of support for him. She is also an extremely intelligent, accomplished woman, whose husband is now making history. She will not knowingly do or say anything that will jeopardize his chances for election. But she must begin to define herself, and her values, for the public, as soon as possible, before she finds herself irredeemably caricatured out of all proportion. In other words, she must "package" herself before the opposition beats her to the punch.
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