Michelle Obama: It’s Tough Being a Busy Single Mother
Michelle Obama temporarily referred to herself as a “single mother”:
First lady Michelle Obama accidentally referred to herself as a “single mother” during a local TV interview Thursday — before swiftly correcting herself.
She made the comment during an interview with the CBS affiliate in Burlington, Vt.
While discussing efforts to help under-served communities, the first lady tried to make the point that she’s been in the shoes of a “busy” mother.
“Believe me, as a busy, single mother,” she said, before pausing to correct herself. “Or, I shouldn’t say single — as a busy mother, sometimes you know when you’ve got the husband who’s president, it can feel a little single. But he’s there.”
Thanks to JVW, who adds his own commentary that is worthy of inclusion in this post:
Can we all please step back a moment from our selfish and self-centered lives and ruminate on how difficult it must be to raise children when your husband is President of the United States? I mean it has to be tough, what with coordinating the maids, butlers, chefs, gardners, chauffers, personal secretaries, security detail, gofers, press agents, and other underlings that one gets by virture of living in the White House. And it sucks that the girls can’t spend more time with daddy because he is off on a golf vacation in Florida or they are kicking it as a ski resort in Sun Valley. Next time you are stuck in traffic trying to get the kids delivered from afternoon swim practice to their evening church group meeting and wondering if you might have time to swing through the Taco Bell drive-through to get them something to eat and realizing that you are supposed to pick your spouse up at the airport when she returns from her week-long business trip at 11:00 pm, just remember that Michelle Obama is struggling even more than you are.
Some math: golf takes six hours when all is said and done.
“It’s the only time that for six hours, I’m outside,” Obama told CBS News.
According to the very useful site the Obama Golf Counter, Obama has played 115 rounds of golf as President. 115 times six makes 690 hours of playing golf. There are 40 hours in a standard work week. 690 (number of golf hours played) divided by 40 (number of hours in a standard work week) is 17.25. That’s over 17 work weeks of playing golf — more than four work months.
I’m not sure why that comes to mind in this post, but it does for some reason. (Whistles innocently.)
Michelle Antoinette Obama – Let them eat arugula.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/6/2013 @ 10:25 amThanks again to JVW. Great catch.
Patterico (2efd47) — 4/6/2013 @ 10:27 amgolfing is to getting out into the great outdoors as teaching constitutional law is to becoming a fascist liberty-raping soros lapdog president I think
happyfeet (8ce051) — 4/6/2013 @ 10:30 amThis President is only interested in campaigning. He could care less about actually running the country. Leave that to the little people. And when things go wrong, as they usually do, they get the blame. This has been O’s MO since the start. Present.
AZ Bob (c11d35) — 4/6/2013 @ 10:44 am‘It’s gotten much too silly indeed’ says Zombie Graham Chapman.
narciso (3fec35) — 4/6/2013 @ 10:49 amI should add that he finds campaigning more fun because he enjoys trashing his opponents.
AZ Bob (c11d35) — 4/6/2013 @ 10:49 amMaybe being First Lady is too much for one person to handle.
kaf (81bcc7) — 4/6/2013 @ 10:52 amAt least under Carter people only thought that way about the Presidency itself.
Obama can go f*ck himself, but I think it’s hilarious how everyone’s suddenly become bean counters about presidential recreation time. Simon Jester might call it “alphabetism” or something.
Leviticus (17b7a5) — 4/6/2013 @ 11:07 am115 rounds of golf in ~220 weeks in office. That’s about one round every other weekend. Cry more.
Leviticus (17b7a5) — 4/6/2013 @ 11:10 am(Whistles innocently.)
Mark (e5fd6c) — 4/6/2013 @ 11:12 amEmpty husband.
Kevin P. (1df29c) — 4/6/2013 @ 11:13 amEmpty POTUS.
The Kopypasta Kid strikes again!
Leviticus (17b7a5) — 4/6/2013 @ 11:15 amAll the honeys who makin’ money
SarahW (b0e533) — 4/6/2013 @ 11:16 amThrow your hands up at me
No, don’t overthink it, they are preying on the gullability of the LIV,
narciso (3fec35) — 4/6/2013 @ 11:36 am“Obama can go f*ck himself, but I think it’s hilarious how everyone’s suddenly become bean counters about presidential recreation time.”
Leviticus – Your powers of observation are keen, Grasshopper. That is exactly what is going on!
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/6/2013 @ 11:44 amI am honored to have a comment turned into a post here. When I first read Mrs. Obama’s comment, part of my really negative response to it involved an anecdote (perhaps apocryphal) about the British Royal Family. The story goes that one of the royals — I recall it being Sarah, the Dutchess of Kent and Prince Andrew’s ex-wife, being quoted in a newspaper about how hard it was maintaining one’s royal duties while still being a wife and mother. Supposedly one of the elder royals — Prince Phillip or the Queen Mother — later took her aside and said something along the lines of “My dear, imagine how it appears to the public when one registers that complaint from a drawing room in Kensington Palace.” The First Lady would be well-advised to think about that.
JVW (4826a9) — 4/6/2013 @ 12:06 pmThe Clown-in-Chief bemoans the “perpetual campaign” even while he’s attending fundraisers…
Colonel Haiku (2d271c) — 4/6/2013 @ 12:09 pmThe Kid’s awesome, daley. So much perception in a youngster that it’s truly scary!
Colonel Haiku (2d271c) — 4/6/2013 @ 12:11 pmHey, I’d be golfing too if I had to look at her sourpuss every day.
And I don’t even golf.
Colonel Haiku (2d271c) — 4/6/2013 @ 12:13 pmraging mad-dog eyes
Colonel Haiku (2d271c) — 4/6/2013 @ 12:16 pmteh double-wide caboose
OG First Lady
teh First Lady loves America
Colonel Haiku (2d271c) — 4/6/2013 @ 12:31 pmlike OJ loved Nicole
like dahmer loved trying new recipes
happyfeet (8ce051) — 4/6/2013 @ 1:09 pmYou people ought to take a real good look at the nasty side of yourselves, then do something positive about it!
Perry (304b25) — 4/6/2013 @ 1:42 pmyou look long enough into the nasty pert soon the nasty gon start look back through you
then you’re in a pickle boy howdy
happyfeet (8ce051) — 4/6/2013 @ 1:45 pm“They bought their tickets.They knew what they were getting into.
“I say, let ’em crash!”
My Sharia Moor (7ede7d) — 4/6/2013 @ 1:49 pmPerrymonious!
Colonel Haiku (2d271c) — 4/6/2013 @ 1:51 pmAnd now her old man’s after the money we’ve all saved in our 401Ks. The sheer
audacistupidity these leftwingers are afflicted with that enables them to believe they have the power/right to say what constitutes “too much” wealth… and we shouldn’t kid ourselves… this is the camel’s nose under the tentflap… only the beginning.http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/domestic-taxes/292071-obama-budget-to-target-wealthy-iras
Colonel Haiku (2d271c) — 4/6/2013 @ 1:58 pmNo 2 straight guys have ever sat on a couch like this-not that there’s anything wrong with that. We know nothing about this mna-
http://search.aol.com/aol/imageDetails?s_it=imageDetails&q=images+obama+on+the+couch+with+man&img=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-gZOWiKni0NU%2FT7bq5MtJLHI%2FAAAAAAAAAoU%2FZzHDxDNo3cQ%2Fs1600%2Fobama-couch_lightbox.jpg&v_t=keyword_rollover&host=http%3A%2F%2Fdrawandstrike.blogspot.com%2F2012%2F05%2Fhey-heres-pretty-novel-idea-about-whole.html&width=179&height=145&thumbUrl=http%3A%2F%2Ft0.gstatic.com%2Fimages%3Fq%3Dtbn%3AANd9GcT4-i4veH0XUy3mWinBTDpl3zy6IE3tFaqVB0drJfSVAbP9c5jWTKsHSREWvA%3A2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-gZOWiKni0NU%2FT7bq5MtJLHI%2FAAAAAAAAAoU%2FZzHDxDNo3cQ%2Fs1600%2Fobama-couch_lightbox.jpg&b=image%3Fq%3Dimages%2Bobama%2Bon%2Bthe%2Bcouch%2Bwith%2Bman%26v_t%3Dkeyword_rollover%26s_it%3DimageResultsBack%26oreq%3D88e1d76fd6a740fab2e2115c4f7a771a&imgHeight=600&imgWidth=736&imgTitle=than+Obama+never+bothering&imgSize=60293&hostName=drawandstrike.blogspot.com
Bugg (b32862) — 4/6/2013 @ 2:03 pmHoly extended link! I am outraged!!! Eleventy!!!!!
Colonel Haiku (2d271c) — 4/6/2013 @ 2:11 pmOr you can always tinyurl;
http://drawandstrike.blogspot.com/2012/05/hey-heres-pretty-novel-idea-about-whole.html
narciso (3fec35) — 4/6/2013 @ 2:26 pmNot sure where to put this, so I will put it here and hope Patterico gives me a hat tip.
Bill Maher was bashing Ron Paul for “ruining libertarianism,” saying Paul was focusing too much on free-market capitalism.
Chuck Bartowski (988f6b) — 4/6/2013 @ 2:55 pmChrissie “he’s a perfect husband, a perfect father” Matthews is crushed.
Icy (1d5ddf) — 4/6/2013 @ 3:23 pmYou know, everybody mis-speaks on occasion. Why, earlier this week I was showing photos of our recent vacation to a colleague and I said “and here’s a picture I really love of me up close with a big porpoise”.
And my friend said, “actually that’s a picture of you up close with a giant tortoise.”
And I laughed and replied, “actually, you are right”.
But, my colleague graciously helped me out by saying “well those two animal names sound sort of alike so I can see why your brain might have gone there.
It’s a little harder to see how Mrs. Obama’s brain got to “single mom”, though I think.
elissa (59a015) — 4/6/2013 @ 3:31 pmthat reminders me of the girl who said hey did you know there were leprechauns in hawaii?
happyfeet (8ce051) — 4/6/2013 @ 4:30 pmIf it takes him 6 hours for a round of golf, he is horrible.
JD (fe3864) — 4/6/2013 @ 4:38 pmShorter Leviticus:
If Laura Bush wanted to make comments about how she was a single mom because George worked so hard, and George had spent 700 hours playing golf, I would have found that a legitimate subject for commentary.
If Bush had engaged in spending excesses and numerous flashy vacations while claiming that White House tours because of budget constraints, I would have found that a legitimate subject for commentary.
Patterico (0299b4) — 4/6/2013 @ 5:06 pmJD-It always took slick willie 6 hours to play at Farm Neck.
mg (31009b) — 4/6/2013 @ 5:18 pmAt the turn he had lunch, for the “Vineyard Twins”.
that reminders me of the girl who said hey did you know there were leprechauns in hawaii?
Comment by happyfeet (8ce051) — 4/6/2013 @ 4:30 pm
They’re called Menehune.
nk (d4662f) — 4/6/2013 @ 5:23 pmIt takes him 6 hours because he’s spending most of that time indoors, around the saunas, doing blow and getting blown.
Basta (2648f1) — 4/6/2013 @ 5:26 pmIt’s a little harder to see how Mrs. Obama’s brain got to “single mom”, though I think.
It’s like the time I wanted to say “Certainly, officer, here’s my driver’s license and insurance card” and it came out “Go suck a jelly roll, pig, you’re ruining my buzz”.
nk (d4662f) — 4/6/2013 @ 5:27 pmDoes anyone in this family ever tell the truth?
Remember this?
http://sotu.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/02/yellin-and-balz-on-campaign-2012/
From about the 2:05 mark Yellin talks about what Obama said when she asked him why he didn’t reach out to the Republicans to work on the budget.
He wouldn’t work nights and weekends because he didn’t want to miss his daughters growing up (which makes one wonder why he wanted to be President which is supposed to entail working on the country’s priorities) and Michelle says she felt like a single mom?
Steve57 (be3310) — 4/6/2013 @ 5:28 pm“She works hard for the Money”
mg (31009b) — 4/6/2013 @ 5:36 pmWhat is Madame Blowhard so bizzy doing??? She is welcome to take herself and her 2 darling daughters back to Hyde Park. In fact I’m sure the govt would pay for the bullet proof windows.
Gus (694db4) — 4/6/2013 @ 5:49 pmShorter Patterico:
Waaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh…
Somebody call the Wah-mbulance.
Leviticus (17b7a5) — 4/6/2013 @ 5:50 pm115 rounds of golf in ~220 weeks in office. That’s about one round every other weekend.
Leviticus (17b7a5) — 4/6/2013 @ 5:51 pmSorry. That was immature.
The general topic – Obama shutting down White House tours while simultaneously spending a ton of money on personal vacations, wanker concerts, and whatnot – is totally legitimate.
The golf thing strikes me as a little silly, especially when you realize that it’s one round every other weekend.
Leviticus (17b7a5) — 4/6/2013 @ 6:00 pmIt would be silly Leviticus, if your side of the aisle hadn’t had seizures about Bush golfing les than half that amount in 8 years.
JD (fe3864) — 4/6/2013 @ 6:09 pmIn remember when Michelle told us all about how hard it was to keep fresh fruit and veggies in the house for the kids when they were millionaires, and had their own chef.
JD (fe3864) — 4/6/2013 @ 6:09 pmYeah Leviticus is right, Obama is a hard working man.
Hahahahahahahahahaahaha! To believe that after what we have seen is hilarious.
Gus (694db4) — 4/6/2013 @ 6:12 pmThe term Single Mom has become a kind of badge of honor to the people who use it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a high-salaried female TV Talking Head refer to herself as a “single mom.” Usually she is divorced.
DN (7fc565) — 4/6/2013 @ 6:24 pm“It would be silly Leviticus, if your side of the aisle hadn’t had seizures about Bush golfing les than half that amount in 8 years.”
– JD
“My side.” They are not “my side.”
Leviticus (17b7a5) — 4/6/2013 @ 6:25 pmFair enough, but you get my point.
JD (fe3864) — 4/6/2013 @ 6:27 pmThey are the Tom and Daisy Buchanan, aren’t they, their actions destroy the livelihoods of countless, but like the press in the Right Stuff, there is no criticism allowed, hence they are never held responsible,
narciso (3fec35) — 4/6/2013 @ 6:31 pm“Fair enough, but you get my point.”
– JD
Yes, I do. And (for the record) clearing brush on a ranch in Texas sounds about a million times more gratifying to me than playing ~115 rounds of golf in mom-Dockers.
I don’t quite get golf.
Leviticus (17b7a5) — 4/6/2013 @ 7:14 pmI love golf. Obama plays golf. Nobody that loves golf plays a 6 hour round on purpose.
JD (f778bc) — 4/6/2013 @ 7:22 pmJD: Amen.
Ag80 (78934d) — 4/6/2013 @ 7:31 pmRacist breeders.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/6/2013 @ 7:47 pmIt wasn’t mentioned by Mrs. Obama but she also has the live-in help of her mother Marian Robinson. And because there is a very personal investment in the care and keeping of one’s own grandchildren, the girls must be well taken care of. So, while Mrs. Obama may *feel* like a busy single mother at times, she should remind herself how very fortunate she is to have the fallback help of her own mother – which then actually renders her complaint moot. Busy working mothers everywhere should be so fortunate to have the personal loving help of a grandmother like she does.
From May, 2009,
Dana (292dcf) — 4/6/2013 @ 7:49 pmDana:
Regardless of one’s political inclinations, grandparents are, well, grand.
Ag80 (78934d) — 4/6/2013 @ 7:57 pmAbsolutely, Ag80. And that’s why I find it curious that she neglected to counter her “busy single mother” comment with…‘however, although my husband is very busy, we are so fortunate to have my mother live with us and help with the girls – thus making all of our lives easier‘ or something to that effect…
Dana (292dcf) — 4/6/2013 @ 8:01 pmDana – she can’t let facts get in the way of her whining. It is also tough to be a single parent with a SS detail, chefs, multiple aides, travel coordinators, etc
JD (fe3864) — 4/6/2013 @ 8:21 pmI don’t know which is worse, playing 115 rounds of golf in four plus years, about two rounds per month, or initiating two wars of choice costing well over 100,000 lives, massive infrastructure destruction, and pushing $3 trillion.
Perry (304b25) — 4/6/2013 @ 8:40 pmIt all comes down to balls, JD, The secret service has drastically reduced the search for Obamas balls, by asking the first lady
E.PWJ (f44e22) — 4/6/2013 @ 8:41 pmPerry, get off your sister.
mg (31009b) — 4/6/2013 @ 8:42 pmPerry–you lovable goof–congress was not involved in authorizing the golf games like they were the wars.
elissa (59a015) — 4/6/2013 @ 8:44 pmPerry,
So why didnt bill clinton kill Bin Laden when he had the chance?
E.PWJ (f44e22) — 4/6/2013 @ 8:45 pmI don’t know which is worse, playing 115 rounds of golf in four plus years, about two rounds per month, or initiating two wars of choice costing well over 100,000 lives, massive infrastructure destruction, and pushing $3 trillion.
So much nonsense to unpack in one silly comment.
JD (fe3864) — 4/6/2013 @ 8:48 pmThat’s the largest SQUIRREL?? ever seen, JD.
narciso (3fec35) — 4/6/2013 @ 8:50 pmPretty damn close, narcisco.
JD (fe3864) — 4/6/2013 @ 8:54 pmHas the frequency of Obama’s golf outings increased or decreased since he became President? That’s what inquiring minds want to know. Since there is little talk of his golf activity pre-presidency, I have to assume he is playing more frequently since assuming the most important job in the world.
Heckuva job Barcky!
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/6/2013 @ 9:04 pmPerry,
So why didnt bill clinton kill Bin Laden when he had the chance?
Comment by E.PWJ (f44e22) — 4/6/2013 @ 8:45 pm
— Coincidentally, Clinton had lost balls at this time.
Icy (1d5ddf) — 4/6/2013 @ 9:27 pmWell, not so much ‘lost’ as his spouse had them safely locked away lest he lose them inside another intern.
[It surely was . . . challenging to give the “kill” order sans stones.]
Maybe this had something to do with it;
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,185825,00.html
narciso (3fec35) — 4/6/2013 @ 9:29 pmif I could walk a mile in m’chelle’s moccasins I’d head straight to a pawn shop
ka-ching
happyfeet (8ce051) — 4/6/2013 @ 9:39 pmHe also loves basketball. Nobody that loves basketball goes 2 for 22, unguarded and including attempts at lay-ups, in front of a crowd and a film crew on purpose.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/richkarlgaard/2012/09/03/did-the-new-york-times-just-get-obama-fired/
Maybe Mooch had something of a point about feeling like a single mom. Maybe Obama wasn’t skipping work nights and weekends when he should have been working on a budget deal so he could spend time with his wife kids.
Instead he was practicing bowling because it burned him up that he publicly scored so low.
I’d be willing to bet the next time he shoots hoops in front of the entire nation he’ll do better. So we’ll know what he’s been up after farming this whole NORK thing out to Jarrett, Kerry and Hagel.
But maybe we’re better off if he’s working on lay-ups so he can look better on TV than working on plan about how to deal with the NORKs.
Steve57 (be3310) — 4/6/2013 @ 10:35 pmI don’t know which is worse, playing 115 rounds of golf in four plus years, about two rounds per month, or initiating two wars of choice costing well over 100,000 lives, massive infrastructure destruction, and pushing $3 trillion.
How about this: Adding $6 trillion to the deficit in only four years; foisting upon us a hugely unpopular open-ended entitlement whose key components are subject to an unelected bureaucracy, abandoning our allies in those “wars of choice” in the vague hopes that everything will work out for them, sitting by passively while radical Muslims strengthen their hold in the Middle East, choosing to take the side of a totalitarian anti-democratic despotic regime against a pluralistic bulwark of democracy in a hostile region, ignoring the world’s largest democracy in South Asia so that you can curry favor with their authoritarian Islamist enemy and a nearby communist adversary, dividing the country further along racial and class lines in order to further your electoral prospects, and sitting idly by while your minions suborn democracy and the rule of law with their heavy-handed imposition of what they personally believe to be “fair”?
JVW (4826a9) — 4/6/2013 @ 10:55 pmBarack Obama tells Bryant Gumbel that if a man keeps shooting when he’s got no jump shot then “there’s something delusional about his game.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VotwxIljeg&feature=player_embedded
There’s something delusional about Barack Obama alright. But then there’s something delusional about Michelle Obama saying that “as busy, single mother,” then imagining she knows what it’s like to even feel like a single mom.
Hey, here’s a thought. Maybe if Michelle didn’t go jetting off to Colorado for skiing while Barack jets off to Florida to golf with Tiger Woods she wouldn’t feel like she was so single. Kind of like the other separate vacations such as the one to the Costa del Sol in Spain.
Yes, I’m sure she felt she could really relate to busy single moms when she had to jet off to Malaga with only her daughter and a few close friends. And a Secret Service detail. So she could spend a few days soaking up the sun, shopping, and sightseeing.
All by her lonesome without Barack. Who was spending his birthday in Chicago.
Steve57 (be3310) — 4/6/2013 @ 11:31 pmSteve57,
That link is hilarious.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 4/6/2013 @ 11:37 pmThe People’s Cube is a great site. I highly recommend it.
Steve57 (be3310) — 4/7/2013 @ 12:17 amIt wasn’t The People’s Cube. But I’ll always associate BigFurHat with The People’s Cube.
http://thepeoplescube.com/peoples-blog/it-s-big-fur-hat-our-comrade-launches-his-own-website-t9047.html
Steve57 (be3310) — 4/7/2013 @ 12:32 amIt’s a hard life being the first President who is, you know… black.
Smock Puppet, 10th Dan Snark Master and Gender Bïgǒt (98ae1f) — 4/7/2013 @ 3:51 amHe can’t be worse at golf then President’n, can he? His strength appears to be manipulating white guilt. And that he was born with.
East Bay Jay (a5dac7) — 4/7/2013 @ 8:02 amborn under bad sign
Colonel Haiku (35c596) — 4/7/2013 @ 8:21 amHe can’t watch his wife and His
outside womens too
No 2 straight guys have ever sat on a couch like this
I’ve seen that photo before and, by itself, I tend to discount it as implying anything about Obama’s sexuality. But that combined with other tidbits going back to 2008, including things as recently as Michelle’s Freudian slip and the couple’s recent vacation spent separately, lead me to believe all the talk and accounts of the guy in the White House not being strictly heterosexual are accurate.
That’s why I think the “single mother” remarks are more interesting than people realize. Or they’re not necessarily just a sign of the woe-is-me, victi-crat, Marie-Antoinette mentalities of a liberal. In some ways, therefore, some folks may feel a bit of new-found sympathy for Ms. Obama and a husband who goes both ways.
Mark (e5fd6c) — 4/7/2013 @ 8:34 amnow he’ll be first prez
Colonel Haiku (35c596) — 4/7/2013 @ 8:43 amwho arrived as tight end left
as wide receiver
the American People??? We’re all Wide Receivers now…
Colonel Haiku (35c596) — 4/7/2013 @ 8:44 amMark-
In ways great and small there’s a dishonesty to Obama’s core. He’s firgured out a way to trade on liberal white guilt. it’s how nhe advanced so quickly.
Look at it like this;compare him to Bill Clinton. I don’t like Bill Clinton’s policies. But to his credit the man could sell ice to eskimoes and sand to Arabs.And if compromise was called for, then compromise. He learned from being a governor and paying his dues in national politics that you have to sell your policies, or at least make the best deal you can.
By contrast Obama got pushed up the ladder without ever paying those dues.He traded on his African/exotic background to clear the field. He’s been indulged at every turn, allowed to be lazy, played the race card, guilted the white liberal elites at every turn. There is no real accomplishment. The speeches aree shopworn liberal boilerplate. He appears to have no more idea how the economy works than he did in 2008. And why would he; his supporters don’t really care as long as they can feel good about themselves supporting THE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN PRESIDENT. Jackie Robinson had to hit to stay in the National League. For Obama and his supporters showing up is enough.
Rumor I’ve heard repeatedly form military and Wall Street is that the OBL raid was postponed several times by Valerie Jarrett, and only happend because Hillary and Pannetta exploded at The One.
Basically President Obama is a more presentable Al Sharpton, an inner city hack with no idea what he’s doing.He has never run as much as a paper route nor a 2 car funeral until his first day in the Oval Office. But he likes the perks. Doesn’t speak well of his cowardly opposition who twice refused to call him out.
Bugg (b32862) — 4/7/2013 @ 9:23 amFor whatever reason, Mooch probably feels like a single mom because her husband is AWOL. Like he is as President. Certainly he’s AWOL as CinC:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/07/3325313/who-ordered-destroyers-against.html
It’s clear that Obama has farmed this whole NORK thing out to Hagel and Kerry (and maybe some aspects like making the decision if SecDef or SecState actually needs the President to make the call to Jarret).
That’s his management style, if you care to call it management. Huddle with his political advisers, then go to sleep and rest up for the fundraiser, when the Benghazi diplomatic facility is under attack. If it goes well, claim credit. If it goes badly, take “responsibility.” Which in present day DC means find an underling to blame.
Now it’s the Navy, although the Navy announces these kinds of movements all the time during times of increased tensions.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57411165/navy-deploys-2nd-aircraft-carrier-to-persian-gulf-uss-enterprise-joins-abraham-lincoln-strike-group/
April 9, 2012:
http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/23/iran-us-gulf-idINDEE87M0A520120823
August 23, 2012:
These announcements are routine and there would have been no reason for anyone at DoD to think they shouldn’t have released the information. They do it all the time.
But had the WH been involved they could have told the Pentagon to say the destroyers were simply participating in FOAL EAGLE and their deployment was long planned as well. That would have been entirely believable since there are Arleigh Burke destroyers already participating.
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130319104150-09-sk-training-horizontal-gallery.jpg
It’s a two month exercise. Ships rotate through.
But they clearly were not involved. They were entirely out of the loop. It’s clear that the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. Which is exactly what Jodi Kantor wrote in the September NYT article, “The Competitor in Chief.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/03/us/politics/obama-plays-to-win-in-politics-and-everything-else.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&hp&adxnnlx=1346688036-MzgJyIUa3P4Rdy/Cgzx/ew&
Remember, he doesn’t attend his intel briefings. Carney would tell you he’s such a sophisticated consumer of intel that he doesn’t need to. Anyone who knows anything understands that means he’s not a sophisticated consumer of intel. He’s as good at that as he is at shooting hopes. But he thinks he’s great at both. I’m sure he thinks he knows the job of intel analysis better than the analyst who would brief him. And could provide more detail and some assessment if only Obama could form an intelligent question. But not only can’t he form one, he doesn’t even know he really needs to.
He doesn’t know what he’s doing. He’s not involved.
Which leads us to:
I don’t know if the details are correct but I’d be surprised if he did make the call without someone pressuring him. Only the president has cross border authority. No commander will launch a raid or a strike across an international border without a written order from the President. Which is how, by the way, we know the President was lying when he said he had issued orders on 9/11/13. Everything that the SecDef and CJCS did was entirely within their own authority. Nothing more could have been done without the President exercising his CBA. He didn’t do it.
But apparently Obama the absentee husband/father/CinC thinks we’re all stupid. Or rather his handlers do.
Steve57 (be3310) — 4/7/2013 @ 3:14 pmIn ways great and small there’s a dishonesty to Obama’s core.
Bugg, and not just that, but, even more interesting in this era of same-sex marriage and the agenda of “GLBT” (eg, the ruckus a few months ago involving the Chick-fil-a restaurant chain), is that the top occupant of the Oval Office is bisexual. That he swings both ways, and little controversies like the “single mother” remark from his wife seem to be verifying that. The aberrant nature of all this fits America perfectly in this age of insanity, when everything keeps getting dumbed down further and further—including, per Steve57’s post, the way that international incidents and conflicts are handled.
Lucky us.
Mark (65cee7) — 4/7/2013 @ 5:41 pmIn the progressive mindset, the most noble, hard-working, admirable, imitable kind of parent is the single mother. FLOTUS was just filling air with her BS, and since she thinks very highly of herself, made this revealing slip. I personally am more offended by her bad taste in fashion than by this lip slip.
gp (0c542c) — 4/7/2013 @ 6:01 pmThe First Lady must have a very busy schedule; her day may be more booked than those of most other mothers.
However, her day is spent doing fun stuff like gardening with kids, making a speech, jetting off somewhere to be with her husband, or organising the help. She’s not scrubbing toilets, chauffeuring to school, going to some mind-numbing job, fighting traffic home, making dinner, cleaning up dinner, doing piles of laundry, vacuuming… and then passing out to do it all the next day.
I’ve been insanely busy doing fun and interesting things, and been very busy doing mind-numbing things. Let me tell you, it’s just different.
bridget (84c06f) — 4/7/2013 @ 8:34 pmBridget – men can make dinner, do dishes & do laundry.
JD (fe3864) — 4/7/2013 @ 8:40 pmI know – my dad did all of those things when I was growing up, being a single parent raising kids, and all. 🙂
My point was just that Michelle’s day may be booked solid, but she’s not treading water, just trying to get through the day and hope there’s money left at the end of the month.
bridget (84c06f) — 4/7/2013 @ 9:32 pmBridget, they have someone to organize the help, arrange official parties, whatever. If Barack Obama weren’t married, guess what? The country and the WH would function just fine without a First Lady. There isn’t anything that wouldn’t get done if Mooch wasn’t there.
Being First Lady isn’t actually a job. She doesn’t have to do anything she doesn’t want to do. There are no duties that go with it. So why should she be busy?
I’m sure she’s working her fingers to the bone planning her next luxurious vacation and having designers come by the WH so she’ll have a new wardrobe for the occasion.
Steve57 (be3310) — 4/7/2013 @ 9:39 pmBridget, I just checked the President’s schedule a http://www.whitehouse.gov/schedule/complete/2013-04-08. Then I checked every day for the week.
He’s not even booked solid. If the President isn’t, why would the first lady be booked solid.
Steve57 (be3310) — 4/7/2013 @ 9:43 pmSteve57: I said that she “may” be booked solid, but even if she is, she’s still not doing the kind of things that grind away at your soul.
I am not privy to the details of the Romney’s lives, but my understanding is that Ann Romney actually is a very busy woman, within the demands of her disease. Obviously, her husband has a net worth of a quarter of a billion dollars, so she doesn’t have to be scrubbing toilets, but she’s not sitting around eating bon-bons, either. Or, outside of politics, there’s people like Ree Drummond, who is a stay-at-home mom with a wealthy husband – who also home schools four kids, has her own cooking show, writes best selling books, and is otherwise probably running this ridiculous schedule that puts mere mortals to shame.
Whether Michelle is doing that or not is above my pay grade.
bridget (84c06f) — 4/7/2013 @ 9:59 pmOh, I adore Ree Drummond. Her Pioneer Woman recipes are great…and she is a fine photographer and essayist.
Simon Jester (7b6bc7) — 4/7/2013 @ 10:10 pmShe’s awesome! One of my major life events involved winning one of her KitchenAid mixers (apple green). Her recipes always turn out well and don’t involve ingredients that I’ll never use again (which is crucial for those of us who cook for ourselves and only ourselves).
bridget (84c06f) — 4/8/2013 @ 6:10 amSteve57@93:
I doubt that you realize that this post of yours says a lot more about you than it does about Michelle Obama, and it is not complimentary of you.
It is a given that all First Ladies have many duties and busy schedules, not to mention her being the mother of two daughters going into the most challenging parenting period of their growing up. Do you have tweens or teens in your home?
Perry (d194f5) — 4/8/2013 @ 6:31 amPerry, you are a complete unadulterated idiot. Civics test: Name the law, statute, or federal regulation that gives the first lady any duties or responsibilities whatsoever.
Steve57 (be3310) — 4/8/2013 @ 1:48 pmJust to note, I’d be worried if you were complimentary of me, Perry.
Steve57 (be3310) — 4/8/2013 @ 1:49 pmClearly not, Perry. Apparently only First Ladies have such duties and responsibilities per the Constitution.
Moron.
Steve57 (be3310) — 4/8/2013 @ 1:52 pmAnother civics lesson, Perry.
What did Presidents James Buchanon, Grover Cleveland, and Chester Arthur have in common?
Steve57 (be3310) — 4/8/2013 @ 1:58 pmSwitching topics, here’s a pic of Putin giving two thumbs up to the topless Femen protester at the Hanover trade show.
https://twitter.com/BananaKarenina/status/321215956414251009/photo/1
And his reaction later:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/vladimir-putin/9978447/Bemused-Vladimir-Putin-and-Angela-Merkel-confronted-by-topless-Femen-protester-in-Hanover.html
I realize Putin’s a virtual dictator and in general a nasty piece of work, but in some ways I like him better than our own AWOL CinC/father/husband who thinks the powers of the Presidency should only be used to shred the Constitution and harass and bankrupt the the American people.
Steve57 (be3310) — 4/8/2013 @ 2:04 pmI doubt that you realize that this post of yours says a lot more about you than it does about [insert topic here], and it is not complimentary of you.
Perry just ironically summed up his own entire commenting history on this blog.
JVW (4826a9) — 4/8/2013 @ 2:06 pmi’d just like to point out in passing that, at least as long as marriage is defined as the union of a woman & a man, Moochelle technically is a single mother.
redc1c4 (403dff) — 4/8/2013 @ 2:17 pminadvertent funny by Steve57 @ #87
hope is the thing Obumbles is good at shooting down.
redc1c4 (403dff) — 4/8/2013 @ 2:21 pmI have this vivid memory of the driving range at St. Andrews. On each practice ball, the time “4:08” was printed. When you asked about it, they told you that this was the time in which you had better complete your round. I’m googling like a mofo, and can’t find any evidence that this memory is real. Weird.
carlitos (49ef9f) — 4/8/2013 @ 2:28 pmPerry’s comments are certainly not improving in coherence.
SPQR (495a51) — 4/8/2013 @ 2:43 pmcarlitos, I love how they give you the extra eight minutes — must be so you can get a sandwich and take a leak at the turn or something.
JVW (4826a9) — 4/8/2013 @ 2:54 pm🙂
carlitos (49ef9f) — 4/8/2013 @ 3:02 pm12 min a hole plus the turn.
JD (b63a52) — 4/8/2013 @ 3:16 pmThat’s my usual time for accomplishing …. oh, wait, we were talking about golf?
SPQR (495a51) — 4/8/2013 @ 3:22 pmMichelle made a simple gaffe. She wasn’t thinking and said something stupid, which is worth a snicker.
I think the amusing part is that someone would actually try to defend a comparison of Michelle to downtrodden single mothers who have to work hard to clean, cook, and fund their household… often these days having difficulty getting full employment because of Obamacare’s impact on hiring. That crisis in employment combined with the temptations of food stamps and social security disability are creating a more permanent underclass that is desperately dependent on big government spending. This is great for folks like Michelle Obama, who wouldn’t get all these fabulous vacations and servants if they couldn’t rely on desperate government program voters.
That’s my reaction to this matter, anyway. Perry wants to tell us that Michelle Obama has it ‘challenging’, but the truth is that she has no business comparing herself to a single mother in economic straights, likely knows it, and said something everyone realizes was silly.
Dustin (6e7388) — 4/8/2013 @ 4:03 pmI think it’s more than that, Dustin. It reminds me of something Chris Wallace said when he was accusing Republicans of using “racist dog whistles” during the campaign.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jack-coleman/2012/08/30/chris-matthews-claims-live-black-majority-dc-resides-md-village-less-1
Chris Wallace lives in lily-white Chevy Chase, where one half of one percent of the residents are black.
They’re just nobler than the rest of us Dustin. They understand the “under-served” better than us neanderthals, Dustin.
Of course, that’s the same reason why Michelle keeps trying to say she came from a “working class” family. When in fact her dad had a well paying city job and they were in fact well into the middle class.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-517824/Mrs-O-The-truth-Michelle-Obamas-working-class-credentials.html
These aren’t simple gaffes. These people have been living a lie for so long they’ve come to believe it. It just comes naturally to them now.
Steve57 (be3310) — 4/8/2013 @ 9:09 pmdo you have your chrises mixed up maybe?
elissa (597457) — 4/8/2013 @ 9:13 pmWoah Steve57, you mean Chrissie Matthews, not Chris Wallace! Chris Wallace is actually a competent journalist.
JVW (4826a9) — 4/8/2013 @ 9:14 pmWho was it Tom Edsall, who said almost a year before, that the Dems were not contesting the blue collar white voter, so they just made the other party ‘reactive’
narciso (3fec35) — 4/8/2013 @ 9:17 pmJust in case you don’t want to link:
Michelle is a year or so younger than I am. And if her dad was bringing in $42,686 that was very good money for the time. A lot of blue collar “working class” workers were making under $20k for the entire time Mooch would have been growing up from the mid ’60s into the early ’80s.
Steve57 (be3310) — 4/8/2013 @ 9:20 pmelissa, JVW, you’re right. Shows you how much I watch TV.
Steve57 (be3310) — 4/8/2013 @ 9:23 pmMichelle made a simple gaffe.
Ah, but it was also a so-called “Freudian slip”—and her and Obama taking separate vacations — for example several weeks ago — sure as hell ain’t no gaffe or a Freudian slip. And that’s why her comment is more revealing than certain people may be aware of.
Mark (d8d476) — 4/8/2013 @ 9:27 pmThe Barack Obama/Vladimir Putin comparisons keep rolling in.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/04/a-futile-protest.php
Steve57 (be3310) — 4/8/2013 @ 10:13 pm