Michelle Obama Takes Heat for Saying She’s ‘Proud of My Country’ for the First Time
Michelle Obama is taking heat for saying in Wisconsin Monday she's proud of her country for the first time in her adult life. (AP Photo)
Barack Obama’s wife, Michelle, is under fire for leaving the impression that she hasn’t been proud of her country until now, when Democrats are beginning to rally around her husband’s campaign.
Speaking in Milwaukee, Wis., on Monday, she said, “People in this country are ready for change and hungry for a different kind of politics and … for the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.”
Greeted with rousing applause after making the comment in Milwaukee, Obama delivered an amended version of the speech later that day in Madison, Wis.
“For the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m really proud of my country … not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change,” she said. “I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment.”
Obama was born in 1964, meaning her adult life began in 1982. Critics quickly seized on the newfound national pride.
“I am proud of my country,” John McCain’s wife, Cindy, said at a campaign stop in Brookfield, Wis., Tuesday. “I don’t know if you heard those words earlier … but I am very proud of my country.”
During a follow up press conference, the Arizona senator was asked if they were responding to Michelle Obama and he deferred to his wife.
McCain responded: “I just wanted to make the statement that I have and always will be proud of my country.”
Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the candidate’s wife wasn’t trying to knock her country, only underscore the meaning behind her husband’s campaign.
“The point is that of course Michelle is proud of her country, which is why she and Barack talk constantly about how their story wouldn’t be possible in any other nation on Earth,” she said. “What she meant is that she’s really proud at this moment because for the first time in a long time, thousands of Americans who’ve never participated in politics before are coming out in record numbers to build a grassroots movement for change.”
But conservative outlets aren’t so ready to let her off the hook.
“Can it really be there has not been a moment during that time when she felt proud of her country?” reads an article in Commentary magazine. “Forget matters like the victory in the Cold War; how about only things that have made liberals proud — all the accomplishments of inclusion? How about the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1991? Or Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s elevation to the Supreme Court?”
The article then says Michelle Obama’s comments suggest “the pseudo-messianic nature of the Obama candidacy is very much a part of the way the Obamas themselves are feeling.”
Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol said the comment “was sort of revealing.”
“She was an adult when we won the Cold War without firing a shot. She was an adult for the last 25 years of economic progress, social progress,” he told FOX News. “I think the Democrats have to be careful … they’re running against the status quo … You have to be careful not to let that slide into a kind of indictment of America. Because I don’t think the American people think on the whole that the last 25 years of American history is a narrative of despair and nothing to be proud of.”
Democratic strategist Bob Beckel said Obama “shouldn’t have said it the way she said it” but she gets the benefit of his doubt. He added that she most likely was just referring to the grassroots movement that’s swelled to support her husband, but she needs to be more careful.
“The Obama’s have to recognize they are now front-runners, and everything they say, it’s now open hunting season for people,” he said.
Click here to read the posting on the Commentary Web site.
FOX News’ Mosheh Oinounou and Bonney Kapp contributed to this report.
The lady simply used the word REALLY as an interjection to emphasis how proud she is. It is the same as when someone says I, Myself,… to make a point through use of hyperbole. She is thrilled and excited to have a dream to come true doing her lifetime. It is just an old saying in the black community that when something seems impossible for a black person to achieve, one will say “Well, I won’t see it in my lifetime!” or the belief that a person has gotten so far into adulthood that the time is fading for any dreams to come true. It was from that mentality from which she was responding. Sure, in “specific” company it would have been better received and totally understood. The media choose to misguide. Michelle Obama has said many, many times in her speeches that as a black person she was not even expected to be anyone or achieve anything. She stated a “personal” opinion that is her right under Free Speech!!
People have strategically removed the interjectory -REALLY- and replaced it with the word NEVER or FINALLY or omitted the word REALLY, altogether. This changes entirely what she said or meant to convey. Even if she meant that she had never been proud or that she is finally proud, alas, that’s a good thing and now one can go from here knowing she is an “affirmed” PROUD AMERICAN! Who hasn’t gotten so excited or passionate about what they were saying at the time; only to have it misinterpeted? All said people are starting to pick apart anything the Obamas say or do. So far, they have come up with the silliest trivial missteps in their words. What a shame when Cindy “proud of her country” “addict” Mccain abused And stole drugs. Those in Glass Houses…tis! tis!
As one commenter said, Harvard Educated, raised on a silver spoon….. NO WAY did she not know and mean what she was saying! To believe otherwise is beyond ignorance - it is most likely due to being caught up in an almost “cult” like belief that the Obama’s are anything other than empty air! On a more sinister note I have some fear that some of what the some other commenter’s have said about being raised muslim, won’t stand up for pledge, etc. could very well be extremely harmful to our country. I am a military vet, never served in any conflict, who us VERY concerned about the rhetoric I hear from the Obama’s!
P.S. I will retract this if anyone can list any real significant accomplishments Mr. Obama can claim that even come close to McCain on Clinton and I am Republican most of the time.
I read my comments and I see my prejudice. I apologize to those who might be insulted. I still don’t like the comment made by Mrs. Obama and Mr. Obama’s groundless platform. I will be glad when this election is over.
I am proud that I live in a country in which anyone can say what they truly think and that we can vote for or against a candidate’s bias without duress. I am proud that a person of intellect and ambition can succeed on such a grand scale, regardless of race, creed, or religion. But I am less proud when apologists excuse away transparent and pointed petulance? The lady is an Ivy League, Harvard-law attorney. Is she really unaware of what she is saying? Did she get this far with inelegant, careless comments or did she slip during a euphoric moment at a campaign stop? You decide, but please wake up first.
What Michelle Obama said should be clarified…I will not fault her for a possible slip in what she probably meant.
But on the otherhand, Bill O’Reilly should never ever ever use the word “lynching” when it comes to any American, most importantly an African American women.
Is this a news network?
Michelle Obama’s comments on being proud to be an American for the first time in her adult life is disarming. Suppose she became “First Lady” and made verbal mistakes along that line at foreign functions, etc.? Although highly educated and intelligent, she is a loose cannon for this sort of high political stakes. It seems her personal platform is based upon furthering Civil Rights, which is understandable, yet, her husband is running to serve ALL Americans. She is not ready to be First Lady and frankly, American is not yet ready for an African-American president. African-Americans make up 12% of the population.
As for Obama, all this change and hope he talks about is rhetoric. University students gaggle over him like groupies to a rock star. If he wins the nomination, I’ll vote for McCain.
I have been watching Michelle Obama every chance I get. I feel that I have gotten to know her a little. What I have seen is a kind-hearted, caring person - a bright woman who cares about her family. I heard that Laura Bush had a gracious response to Michelle’s dilemma, something to the effect that she ‘was sure she didn’t mean it like that.’ Obviously, she didn’t mean it like that - she really loves her country.
Contrast our First Lady’s gracious response to our fellow Republicans who are now full of hate, using any excuse to tear down a Democrat. FOX has fallen prey to this deriding talk and it makes me very disappointed.
I have heard that Bill O’Reilly has now even used the hateful word “lynch” in association to the situation. Please, FOX, do the right thing and take action that keeps him from taking our country back to the racial divide that we have worked so hard to overcome.
I don’ t think we as Americans are looking at the bigger picture. Instead of being angry about Michelle Obama’s statement, we should be proud of the fact that after such an unfortunate history, a not too distant history I might add, that an African-American can say I am proud of this country even if it is for the first time. Her statement speaks of the accomplishments of so many people of all races, people who gave there lives so that she’d have the opportunity to say that she’s proud of this country. As an African American myself, seeing so many people of all races vote for Obama the way they have says something to me that I have never truly heard before in my forty-one years. I’ve heard you’re poor therefore we must give you welfare. I’ve heard you’re a minority so we must take some affirmative action, but today I hear America saying something different. Today through the votes of so many Americans of all races, it is saying to me that in the eyes of America, I am more than just a person that this country tolerates or pities. It saying I am more than a burden and an ugly reminder of her past. I hear the voice of America saying to me, for the first time I am proud of you my my child. My beautiful african-AMERICAN child.
Michelle Obama – Proud to Be An American
It IS change.
It IS progress.
It IS a proud moment for this country, when a descendent of slaves of this country can say she is proud of it. She is proud of being an American as opposed to “enduring” the fact that she is — a feeling known all too well by African-Americans and taken for “entitled” granted by European-Americans.
There are people in this country who can feel and be appreciative of being able to “pursue happiness” in this country, yet not feel and be appreciative of the overwhelming gender bias and racism and other hegemonic practices they have to fight on a dayly basis in their “pursuit of happiness.”
Michelle Obama’s courage to confess how she feels and “admit” that feeling of change and progress desired by the American people speaks volumes.
America is robbed of its taunt about the “proud” accomplishments made by American influence in other countries, when the world community is a witness of America’s crimes against humanity of its own people based on race.
PS:
Michelle Obama was applauded for her “open disclosure,” there are people who get it. It is an awakening moment for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream and a proud healing moment for this country. The power brokers of status quo bigotry pissed in their pants to hear the confession of those proud words come out of a black woman’s mouth. Willie Lynch is rolling over in his grave!
There is an attempt on the left to convince the people that patriotism is possible without love of and pride for our country. They attempt to make us believe that changing America for the better is an act of patriotism. While thinking about breaking horses it occured to me that someone that doesn’t love the country and have pride in it can’t be a good president. Someone that breaks horses can love the horse inspite of the animal’s bad behavior. When he breaks the horse its so that the horse and rider can become bonded into a partnership. If the breaker doesn’t care for the horse the act of breaking the horse is just for the sake of subdueing it. If a president does not have a love for America and a pride for America he will break America just for the sake of subdueing America. Michelle’s comments and the honoring of Che Guevara in the Houston office for the Obama Campaign are strong indicators that Obama just may not love and have pride for America.