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The many ghosts of Michelle Obama Like her husband, she's wary of progressive excess

She's not what you want her to be. Credit: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

She's not what you want her to be. Credit: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images


November 18, 2022   5 mins

Michelle Obama has always been surrounded by ghosts of herself, each one a projection of someone else’s fears or fantasies. She was a terrorist fist-bumper. She was a fashion icon. She was a shrill liberal scold or the original girlboss or a tireless activist. She inspired hopes and fury and even pop songs — her name is so synonymous with a certain sort of confidence, competence and glamour that when Fifth Harmony sings, “I’m on my Michelle Obama” in their 2015 song “BO$$”, you know exactly what they mean — even though, as a sentence, it makes no sense.

Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that certain folks want to see her run for president — or are terrified that she will. One article by former GOP creative strategist Myra Adams called Mrs Obama the Democrats’ “break-glass-in-case-of-emergency-candidate”, noting that her “limitless” fundraising ability and “winner’s aura” would make her not just a frontrunner in the primary but an uncontested one whom no other Dem would dare challenge. Meanwhile, presented with the prospect of a 2024 Michelle Obama candidacy, one anonymous Right-wing activist gasps: “God help us.”

Luckily for Republicans, God need not be involved; Michelle Obama has been unequivocal about her total lack of desire to run for office, recently saying that it’s the one question she detests above all others.

But, then, the eagerness surrounding the idea has little to do with Obama herself and lots to do with an overall sense that the wives of presidents, at least the Democratic ones, are not just political spouses but political spouses. This is partly to do with Hillary Clinton being the first FLOTUS-turned-aspiring-POTUS, but perhaps more to do with the prevalent (and not necessarily incorrect) sense that women can and should be doing more in the world than standing behind a man, even if that man is the leader of the free world. Gone are your grandmother’s first ladies, baking cookies and hosting social events and carefully choosing their pet projects from a pre-selected list of distinctly feminine causes. Dissolved is the unofficial role of America’s Homemaker-in-Chief.

Michelle Obama is, indeed, like no other First Lady before her — but this includes the ones who came right before her. Her new book, The Light We Carry, is less a political memoir, than an inspirational guide; certainly it could not be farther in tone or subject matter from Hillary Clinton’s What Happened, a grim post-mortem on her failed 2016 run for President. Over the course of 10 chapters, Obama emphasises communication, connection, and common humanity; she reflects on her role as a wife, a mother, a daughter, and a friend. The whole thing is unmistakably and unabashedly classy, to the point where if Obama recalls any of her predecessors, it’s more Jackie Kennedy than Hillary Clinton: a person without leadership aspirations who nevertheless ends up leading by example.

Michelle Obama’s values and principles are classically liberal, which is to say they’re out of style on the Left — dismissed as respectability politics by people whose preferred political setting is level-11 rage. Publicity seems to nod to current progressive pieties: the blurb promises a look at “issues of race, gender, and visibility”. In it, Obama does occasionally use language that feels borrowed from more polarising authors (the term “black bodies” appears here and there, as if it accidentally wandered into the text from an adjacent book by Ibram X. Kendi), but these elements are far less prominent than one might imagine — or than the media’s insatiable hunger for stories of racialised conflict might make it seem.

The most striking thing about the book is how consciously she veers away from the divisive framing that’s such a hallmark of Left-wing political discourse in 2022. “Most of my earliest memories of being different have nothing to do with being Black,” Obama writes early on in the chapter, “Am I Seen?” Being black did eventually make Obama different, and she does eventually get to this part. But as a child in a largely-black Chicago school, she stood out not for the colour of her skin but her height.

Obama was a tall child. It made her at once hyper-visible and easily dismissed — always in the back row or last in line, owing to the obsession among elementary school teachers with lining up students from shortest to tallest. She describes the moment of dismay she experienced as a high school student watching the cheerleaders tumble across the basketball court and realising that “some of those girls were approximately the size of one of my legs”. (Obama, like her husband, unlike her predecessor, can be very funny.) What’s remarkable here is the relatability. Who among us didn’t experience a moment like this in the throes of puberty: a self-consciousness so heightened that your very existence seemed like an embarrassment too awful to bear?

It’s to Obama’s credit that she gives this credit to her audience: she knows they’ll nod along, recognising their own experiences in hers. This shouldn’t be a significant thing for the memoir of a high-profile Democrat to do — but it is. Operating in a sea of awareness-raising tomes, whose readership is meant to include many if not mostly white women, she is a rare thing: an author who treats those readers charitably rather than with scathing contempt. She gives them the benefit of the doubt, not just that they are capable of empathy, but also that her own experiences are universal enough to empathise with.

If not for the fact that the term has already been coopted to describe a very different sort of ideology, you might even say that Obama’s attitude is inclusivity made manifest: an insistence that humanity recognises humanity, across boundaries, in spite of our differences. “I think the most we can ever do, really, is to walk partway across the bridge toward another person and feel humbled that we get to be there at all,” she writes.

And so this book, against the backdrop of contemporary American politics, does begin to seem like a political legacy of sorts, in spite of itself. It’s impossible not to notice echoes in The Light We Carry of the same pragmatism — and sometimes exasperation — that Barack Obama has exhibited in recent years when critiquing the excesses of the progressive Left. In 2019, the former president made headlines for noting “a sense among certain young people on social media that the way of making change is to be as judgemental as possible about other people”, before telling them to cut it out.

“This idea of purity and you’re never compromised and you’re politically woke, and all that stuff — you should get over that quickly,” he said. “The world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws.”

In her final chapter, titled “Going High”, Michelle Obama echoes these sentiments: “We’ve become adept at making noise and congratulating each other for it, but sometimes we forget to do the work,” she writes. “With a three-second investment, you may be creating an impression, but you are not creating change.” The subtext is clear, if unflattering to today’s keyboard warriors: You’re not helping. Calm down. Grow up.

The former president has come in for a not-insignificant amount of criticism over comments like these, denounced by one writer as “yet another needless prescription of acquiescence to a bloc of Americans on the wrong side of history”. It’s a fair bet that his wife, with this book, will invite a similar backlash from people who believe that going high, especially amid the looming threat of another Trump presidency, is a fool’s errand. Some people will even go so far as to create a new projection, a new ghost-self to join the others: Republicans will point to the book’s discussion of race, gender, and obnoxious Fox News commentators as evidence that the former first lady is far woker than she cares to admit, even as progressives who feel called out by the book accuse her of being a crypto-conservative.

But if Michelle Obama believed in going high even amid the outrage and agita of Donald Trump’s first bid for the White House, surely she won’t allow the more radical elements of her own side to drag her down into the mire now.


Kat Rosenfield is an UnHerd columnist and co-host of the Feminine Chaos podcast. Her latest novel is You Must Remember This.

katrosenfield

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Cho Jinn
Cho Jinn
2 years ago

“especially amid the looming threat of another Trump presidency”

Low(er) tax bill, Ukraine not on fire, Kim Jong Un smiling in the DMZ, illegal border crossings and accordant human misery drying up…those halcyon days. They were tremendous, people tell me possibly the best ever.

David Sharples
David Sharples
2 years ago
Reply to  Cho Jinn

Oh the Obamas…
They give speeches on how racist the US is and how tough they’ve had it, rising sea levels and climate change. Then have to decide which mansion by the sea to visit in a private jet.
They really do enjoy being celebrities for the lies that they tell.

First black American president/ First Lady, then they tell the country “you’re still irremediably racist.”
Why do such a thing? Power, for them and the Democratic Party.

Last edited 2 years ago by David Sharples
Katy Hibbert
Katy Hibbert
2 years ago
Reply to  David Sharples

Obama is not black. He is half-white. Arguably he is more white than black, as his white mother brought him up, while his black babyfather bggred off, as black babyfathers do.

Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
2 years ago
Reply to  Katy Hibbert

Slight correction: His mother’s parents brought him up.

Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
2 years ago
Reply to  Katy Hibbert

Slight correction: His mother’s parents brought him up.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
2 years ago
Reply to  David Sharples

Can you direct us to even one instance when either of the Obamas has said the U.S. is “irremediably racist”–or implied that by any reasonable assessment?
Michelle and Barack have both taken a middle path: acknowledging the racist aspects of America’s history and–in reduced measure–present-day reality, but also their own good fortune as well as the prevailing (if imperfectly distributed) opportunity and fairness of the society overall. That tends to bring ire from both the perpetually outraged far left and the insistently dismissive far right on matters of race.

Last edited 2 years ago by AJ Mac
Katy Hibbert
Katy Hibbert
2 years ago
Reply to  David Sharples

Obama is not black. He is half-white. Arguably he is more white than black, as his white mother brought him up, while his black babyfather bggred off, as black babyfathers do.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
2 years ago
Reply to  David Sharples

Can you direct us to even one instance when either of the Obamas has said the U.S. is “irremediably racist”–or implied that by any reasonable assessment?
Michelle and Barack have both taken a middle path: acknowledging the racist aspects of America’s history and–in reduced measure–present-day reality, but also their own good fortune as well as the prevailing (if imperfectly distributed) opportunity and fairness of the society overall. That tends to bring ire from both the perpetually outraged far left and the insistently dismissive far right on matters of race.

Last edited 2 years ago by AJ Mac
Cathy Carron
Cathy Carron
2 years ago
Reply to  Cho Jinn

This book review is nothing but a ‘gush’ piece. No one has yet written an insightful piece about Michelle Obama both the good and the not so terrific. Too soon for a real close up ? Even The New Yorker magazine – a liberal publication- back in 2009 dived into what formed Mrs. Obama in a rather surprising but very direct way. That after her affirmative action admittance to Princeton & Harvard, she ended up not good enough to make partner at a law firm and became a ‘diversity counselor’ for a Chicago hospital where she made $125k which was subsequently kicked up to $300k when her senator husband landed $2 million federal dollars for said hospital. Throughout her husband’s presidency she did nothing but grumble just about everything. Hardly, a jolly warrior for the people, and not necessarily a ‘gracious’ example. No doubt she has many wistful thoughts and good intentions, but this myth-making and elevation of her is just ridiculous. It does sell books though, no?

Last edited 2 years ago by Cathy Carron
Russell Hamilton
Russell Hamilton
2 years ago
Reply to  Cathy Carron

Well, she did graduate in law, and compared to Kamala Harris she looks like Einstein. Not every lawyer wants to dedicate themselves to climbing the ladder to partner of a law firm; she probably knew she wanted children and family life.

I only remember positive things about her actions as First Lady – traditional first lady things like upbeat support for children’s nutrition and physical exercise, wearing the clothes of American fashion designers etc. Was she that different from Laura Bush? I thought Barack was a disappointment as President, but she was fine as First Lady. She travelled around the world representing Americans as confident, down-to-earth, optimistic, well-mannered, well-meaning people.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
2 years ago

Indeed. Who do her detractors look back on so nostalgically? Unless one thinks a FLOTUS should be completely neutral or silent, I don’t how she ought to be considered controversial or divisive.

Last edited 2 years ago by AJ Mac
Russell Hamilton
Russell Hamilton
2 years ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

“Who do her detractors look back on so nostalgically?”

Probably Pat Nixon.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
2 years ago

A likely candidate for Michelle bashers. Nixon occupied the position around the time I was born. My after-the-fact impression of her is more favorable than of Tricky d**k anyway.
Other than Eleanor Roosevelt, a consequential and then-controversial American who left the office over 75 years ago, no first lady has more passionate fans and haters than Obama does (I think most of Roosevelt’s critics have died). Melania Trump gets praised and mocked, but without the same intensity. Yes, Obama is somewhat outspoken, but I wouldn’t say the heat she generates is altogether ‘post-racial’–on either side.

Russell Hamilton
Russell Hamilton
2 years ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

Don’t you think Hillary Clinton has more passionate fans and haters – than any First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt? You would expect so since she was so involved in politics.

I can only vaguely remember Jackie Kennedy, but all the others I have some impression of, and of all of them Melania Trump made the least impression. Fair enough – she was a foreigner who couldn’t speak English all that well.

Poor old Pat Nixon couldn’t compete with the aristocratic & beautiful Jackie, the capable, confident Ladybird Johnson, or the vivacity of Betty Ford. I don’t think she wanted to compete. She wasn’t bad as a First Lady, she just struck times when people had come to expect a certain glamour and celebrity, and that wasn’t her. At a time when second wave feminism was in full flight she seemed determined to resist.

Last edited 2 years ago by Russell Hamilton
AJ Mac
AJ Mac
2 years ago

True. But she became a senator and ran for president, and is therefore in a sub-category of one.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
2 years ago

True. But she became a senator and ran for president, and is therefore in a sub-category of one.

Russell Hamilton
Russell Hamilton
2 years ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

Don’t you think Hillary Clinton has more passionate fans and haters – than any First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt? You would expect so since she was so involved in politics.

I can only vaguely remember Jackie Kennedy, but all the others I have some impression of, and of all of them Melania Trump made the least impression. Fair enough – she was a foreigner who couldn’t speak English all that well.

Poor old Pat Nixon couldn’t compete with the aristocratic & beautiful Jackie, the capable, confident Ladybird Johnson, or the vivacity of Betty Ford. I don’t think she wanted to compete. She wasn’t bad as a First Lady, she just struck times when people had come to expect a certain glamour and celebrity, and that wasn’t her. At a time when second wave feminism was in full flight she seemed determined to resist.

Last edited 2 years ago by Russell Hamilton
AJ Mac
AJ Mac
2 years ago

A likely candidate for Michelle bashers. Nixon occupied the position around the time I was born. My after-the-fact impression of her is more favorable than of Tricky d**k anyway.
Other than Eleanor Roosevelt, a consequential and then-controversial American who left the office over 75 years ago, no first lady has more passionate fans and haters than Obama does (I think most of Roosevelt’s critics have died). Melania Trump gets praised and mocked, but without the same intensity. Yes, Obama is somewhat outspoken, but I wouldn’t say the heat she generates is altogether ‘post-racial’–on either side.

Russell Hamilton
Russell Hamilton
2 years ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

“Who do her detractors look back on so nostalgically?”

Probably Pat Nixon.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
2 years ago

Indeed. Who do her detractors look back on so nostalgically? Unless one thinks a FLOTUS should be completely neutral or silent, I don’t how she ought to be considered controversial or divisive.

Last edited 2 years ago by AJ Mac
AJ Mac
AJ Mac
2 years ago
Reply to  Cathy Carron

I agree. Not an in-depth or serious review at all.

Russell Hamilton
Russell Hamilton
2 years ago
Reply to  Cathy Carron

Well, she did graduate in law, and compared to Kamala Harris she looks like Einstein. Not every lawyer wants to dedicate themselves to climbing the ladder to partner of a law firm; she probably knew she wanted children and family life.

I only remember positive things about her actions as First Lady – traditional first lady things like upbeat support for children’s nutrition and physical exercise, wearing the clothes of American fashion designers etc. Was she that different from Laura Bush? I thought Barack was a disappointment as President, but she was fine as First Lady. She travelled around the world representing Americans as confident, down-to-earth, optimistic, well-mannered, well-meaning people.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
2 years ago
Reply to  Cathy Carron

I agree. Not an in-depth or serious review at all.

David Sharples
David Sharples
2 years ago
Reply to  Cho Jinn

Oh the Obamas…
They give speeches on how racist the US is and how tough they’ve had it, rising sea levels and climate change. Then have to decide which mansion by the sea to visit in a private jet.
They really do enjoy being celebrities for the lies that they tell.

First black American president/ First Lady, then they tell the country “you’re still irremediably racist.”
Why do such a thing? Power, for them and the Democratic Party.

Last edited 2 years ago by David Sharples
Cathy Carron
Cathy Carron
2 years ago
Reply to  Cho Jinn

This book review is nothing but a ‘gush’ piece. No one has yet written an insightful piece about Michelle Obama both the good and the not so terrific. Too soon for a real close up ? Even The New Yorker magazine – a liberal publication- back in 2009 dived into what formed Mrs. Obama in a rather surprising but very direct way. That after her affirmative action admittance to Princeton & Harvard, she ended up not good enough to make partner at a law firm and became a ‘diversity counselor’ for a Chicago hospital where she made $125k which was subsequently kicked up to $300k when her senator husband landed $2 million federal dollars for said hospital. Throughout her husband’s presidency she did nothing but grumble just about everything. Hardly, a jolly warrior for the people, and not necessarily a ‘gracious’ example. No doubt she has many wistful thoughts and good intentions, but this myth-making and elevation of her is just ridiculous. It does sell books though, no?

Last edited 2 years ago by Cathy Carron
Cho Jinn
Cho Jinn
2 years ago

“especially amid the looming threat of another Trump presidency”

Low(er) tax bill, Ukraine not on fire, Kim Jong Un smiling in the DMZ, illegal border crossings and accordant human misery drying up…those halcyon days. They were tremendous, people tell me possibly the best ever.

Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
2 years ago

Please. The woman likes to shop and travel. That’s about as ambitious as she gets. She most certainly didn’t write the books attributed to her: Christopher Hitchens said her college thesis was “. . . written in no known language.” Articles like this one trying to make her sound deep is just fan-girling folderol.

Last edited 2 years ago by Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
2 years ago

Please. The woman likes to shop and travel. That’s about as ambitious as she gets. She most certainly didn’t write the books attributed to her: Christopher Hitchens said her college thesis was “. . . written in no known language.” Articles like this one trying to make her sound deep is just fan-girling folderol.

Last edited 2 years ago by Allison Barrows
J Bryant
J Bryant
2 years ago

I’m still not convinced Michelle Obama isn’t planning a run for the presidency at some point. I suspect she and her husband believe most people will tire of wokery and will be desperate for a more middle-of-the-road candidate. The great challenge for her will be securing the Democratic nomination. Assuming she overcomes that barrier, if she sticks to her sensible, centrist instincts, she’ll probably be unbeatable. And I write that as a Republican.

Cathy Carron
Cathy Carron
2 years ago
Reply to  J Bryant

She doesn’t have it in her…and that’s a good thing. Most recently, Michelle has been talking about her menopause (it’s a 8itch, natch)…the weight gain, the hot flashes. She isn’t anywhere near ‘declaring’. LOL

Last edited 2 years ago by Cathy Carron
Cathy Carron
Cathy Carron
2 years ago
Reply to  J Bryant

She doesn’t have it in her…and that’s a good thing. Most recently, Michelle has been talking about her menopause (it’s a 8itch, natch)…the weight gain, the hot flashes. She isn’t anywhere near ‘declaring’. LOL

Last edited 2 years ago by Cathy Carron
J Bryant
J Bryant
2 years ago

I’m still not convinced Michelle Obama isn’t planning a run for the presidency at some point. I suspect she and her husband believe most people will tire of wokery and will be desperate for a more middle-of-the-road candidate. The great challenge for her will be securing the Democratic nomination. Assuming she overcomes that barrier, if she sticks to her sensible, centrist instincts, she’ll probably be unbeatable. And I write that as a Republican.

Pat Rowles
Pat Rowles
2 years ago

Not a criticism of the author or the article, but this perception on the part of the public that someone is suitable for high office because they’re famous by association, seem ‘nice’, and have made the right noises about the right issues is part of the dumbing down process. See also Whoopi ‘Thicko’ Goldberg’s assertion that Biden’s wife would make a good Surgeon General, not realising that ‘Dr’ Biden had no medical qualifications whatsoever. Bill Burr nailed it in this routine.

Pat Rowles
Pat Rowles
2 years ago

Not a criticism of the author or the article, but this perception on the part of the public that someone is suitable for high office because they’re famous by association, seem ‘nice’, and have made the right noises about the right issues is part of the dumbing down process. See also Whoopi ‘Thicko’ Goldberg’s assertion that Biden’s wife would make a good Surgeon General, not realising that ‘Dr’ Biden had no medical qualifications whatsoever. Bill Burr nailed it in this routine.

Katy Hibbert
Katy Hibbert
2 years ago

She was a shrill liberal scold or the original girlboss or a tireless activist.

She’s a talentless nonentity who is only known through her half-white husband. Though thick, she got into Princeton through “affirmative action”, which means admitting or promoting thick black people instead of more talented whites and Orientals. She spent the whole time at Princeton whingeing about how people saw her as black first and a student second, which is ironic as she was only there because she’s black.

BK baird
BK baird
2 years ago
Reply to  Katy Hibbert

I am still struggling that She is a he.. ^shrug^
My wife told me to STFU. I said where are the pregnancy pictures, and around we go. Regardless, Obama started the race debacle we now are in. What a well-spoken, clean, arrogant jerk he turned out to be.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
2 years ago
Reply to  BK baird

Ah, the non-racialized paradise of 2007, when gangsta rap was genteel and America had neither proud neo-Nazis nor closeted bigots of every possible color!

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
2 years ago
Reply to  BK baird

Ah, the non-racialized paradise of 2007, when gangsta rap was genteel and America had neither proud neo-Nazis nor closeted bigots of every possible color!

BK baird
BK baird
2 years ago
Reply to  Katy Hibbert

I am still struggling that She is a he.. ^shrug^
My wife told me to STFU. I said where are the pregnancy pictures, and around we go. Regardless, Obama started the race debacle we now are in. What a well-spoken, clean, arrogant jerk he turned out to be.

Katy Hibbert
Katy Hibbert
2 years ago

She was a shrill liberal scold or the original girlboss or a tireless activist.

She’s a talentless nonentity who is only known through her half-white husband. Though thick, she got into Princeton through “affirmative action”, which means admitting or promoting thick black people instead of more talented whites and Orientals. She spent the whole time at Princeton whingeing about how people saw her as black first and a student second, which is ironic as she was only there because she’s black.

Paul MacDonnell
Paul MacDonnell
2 years ago

Is this bullshit?

Or

Utter bullshit?

Paul MacDonnell
Paul MacDonnell
2 years ago

Is this bullshit?

Or

Utter bullshit?

William Miller
William Miller
2 years ago

“Wary of progressive excess? Her views on race define excess. This is not a well-thought out article.

William Miller
William Miller
2 years ago

“Wary of progressive excess? Her views on race define excess. This is not a well-thought out article.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
2 years ago

She insults Latino people by calling them “Latinx”.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
2 years ago

She insults Latino people by calling them “Latinx”.

Paul MacDonnell
Paul MacDonnell
2 years ago

“certain folks want to see her run for president — or are terrified that she will.”

You are delusional.

Paul MacDonnell
Paul MacDonnell
2 years ago

“certain folks want to see her run for president — or are terrified that she will.”

You are delusional.

Phil Re
Phil Re
2 years ago

Obama was a major architect of the Wokepoclalypse, so I’m not buying the depiction of the Obamas as voices of reason whose warnings went unheeded.
If you upend the norms that keep the extremists in check, you don’t get credit for warning the extremists not to go too far.

Phil Re
Phil Re
2 years ago

Obama was a major architect of the Wokepoclalypse, so I’m not buying the depiction of the Obamas as voices of reason whose warnings went unheeded.
If you upend the norms that keep the extremists in check, you don’t get credit for warning the extremists not to go too far.

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
2 years ago

.. She is so utterly gorgeous…

Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
2 years ago

Who pays you to troll here?

Kerie Receveur
Kerie Receveur
1 year ago

Should be booking your appointment at Specsavers, pet, rather than posting twaddle.

Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
2 years ago

Who pays you to troll here?

Kerie Receveur
Kerie Receveur
1 year ago

Should be booking your appointment at Specsavers, pet, rather than posting twaddle.

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
2 years ago

.. She is so utterly gorgeous…