Says Coates,

“When Michelle Obama told a Milwaukee campaign rally last February, “For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country,” critics derided her as another Angry Black Woman. But the only truly radical proposition put forth by Obama, born and raised in Chicago’s storied South Side, is the idea of a black community fully vested in the country at large, and proud of the American dream.”

Coates makes a sound case of why Michelle is just an all-American girl. She is a wholesome dichotomy of upper-class/working-class, black/white, urban/suburban, working mom/stay at home mom. She is the medley that America represents and per Coates perhaps more so than her husband, who has often been touted as the bridge that American needs to close the racial, socio-economic gap.

Says Coates,

“There has been much chatter about Barack Obama as the answer to America’s racial gap, as a biracial black man whose roots stretch from Hawaii to Kenya, with an Ivy League pedigree and the seal of the South Side. But he is not the only one entering the White House who has seen both sides, who intuitively grasps the heroic American narrative of work ethic and family, and how that narrative historically failed black people. He is not the only one who walks in both worlds. Indeed, if you’re looking for a bridge, if you’re looking for someone to connect the heart of black America with the heart of all of America, to allow us all to look at the American dream in the same way, if you’re looking for common ground, then it’s true, we should be talking about Obama. But we should make sure we’re talking about the right one.”

Wow, there’s nothing more to say. Ta-Nehisi nails it in this article.

Posted by Bridgette of http://www.trailblazer-firstlady.blogspot.com. *Photo source is unknown.

“The women’s words are being compiled into a book, “Go, Tell Michelle: African American Women’s Letters to the New First Lady,” by Barbara Seals Nevergold, and Peggy Brooks-Bertram, senior educational specialists and co-founders of the Uncrowned Queens Institute for Research and Education on Women at UB.

The book will be published in January by SUNY Press/Excelsior Editions. The goal is to have the book in Michelle Obama’s hands by Inauguration Day—Jan. 20, 2009.

The project had its genesis, Nevergold explains, in the 2008 presidential campaign as she watched President-elect Barack Obama’s journey to the White House gather momentum and his wife, Michelle, come into her own as a presidential candidate’s wife.”

Michelle has moved so many people all over the country by being simply who she is.  She has a tremendous responsibility and at times,  the load will be heavy.   What advice or words of encouragement would you offer to Michelle?   Posted by Bridgette of http://www.trailblazer-firstlady.blogspot.com/ . *Photo courtesy of SUNY Press.

Imagine that! The most protected individuals in the entire world include one Black man…one Black woman…and two Black children! Don’t know about you, but the imagery evoked by this picture taken yesterday of Michelle and the wees sends shivers up my spine. LOVE IT!!! JUST LOVE IT!!!

“No need to read between the lines spelled out for you…because you can’t go wrong when you value a woman’s worth” ~~Aliscia Keyes

Posted by SjP of Sojourner’s Place

Head on over to change.gov and click through to the invitation page . Then, click on the box labled "invitee" and scroll down and click on Mrs. Michelle Obama .  Then, of course, it’s up to you to craft a compelling case for Mrs. Obama’s folks to consider granting your request. Access won’t excuse us from excellence.

Even without advance notice of their early arrival, a small crowd formed to greet the Obamas at the hotel, attracted by news cameras staking out the entrance. When the motorcade zoomed into the alleyway behind the building, onlookers strained on tiptoes, with cameras in hand, to see over Secret Service SUVs that largely blocked off the entire scene. No one saw much of anything.
…
There were few signs of pomp and circumstance at the hotel. Employees declined to talk about the family’s stay, and the Hay-Adams said it could not confirm that the Obamas would be guests. Washington Post

Let’s just hope the Hay-Adams room service staff don’t give fake tips to the NY Post a la Waldorf Astoria.
Posted by Gina

Right-wing flame thrower Ann Coulter blasts incoming First Lady Michelle Obama as a freakish Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis imitator in a book to be published next week.

Coulter slams Obama’s dress sense as well as the way she wears her hair:

Lashing out at the President-elect’s wife, Coulter wrote, “Her obvious imitation of Jackie O’s style - the flipped-under hair, the sleeveless A-line dresses, the short strands of fake pearls - would have been laughable if done by anyone other than a media-designated saint.”

Saul shows us that both the “saint” and “Mother Theresa” references imply that Mrs. Obama’s career advancement was due to her husband’s rise in the world of politics:

Coulter facetiously and snidely refers to Michelle Obama as a “saint” and “Mother Teresa” and suggests that her public service career “advanced in lockstep with the political advancement of her husband.”

Coulter, on the other hand, has nothing but praise for Obama’s former rival, Cindy McCain:

Coulter said Cindy McCain, the wife of vanquished GOP nominee John McCain, “dressed well without freakishly imitating famous First Ladies in history.”

Posted by LorMarie

Michelle Obama, who will become America’s next first lady on January 20, opened up about how she first met her husband, a “no-frills guy,” in a television interview broadcast Thursday.

“He didn’t care about what other people thought and how he looked, and he was not into fashion but he was very much into issues. He cared more about the work that he was doing in the community than how he looked,” Michelle Obama told CNN.

“He always has and always will be a kind of no-frills guy.”

When she first learned about her future husband, she “probably did what a lot of people do when they hear about Barack Obama. First, I thought, what kind of a name is Barack Obama?” Michelle Obama told CNN.

“My assumption was, this guy’s got to be a little weird. Probably a little nerdy. I’d already created an image of this very intellectual image of this nerd.”

AFP

Earlier this week, Michelle Obama Watch gave a big shout out to Mrs O a blog about Michelle Obama’s fashion. I thought they were an independent operation like ours, but turns out that it is actually a corporate blog, a new division of an advertising agency meant to be a case study. According to the NY Times Mrs. O Is Not What You Think It Is

On this last day of 2008, the most tumultuous year we’ve had personally and collectively, we come to find out that a blog we’ve linked to, read often, found interesting and informative is an ad-agency blog. Yes, Mrs. O is not a random site done by a Michelle Obama enthusiast. It’s bankrolled by advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty and written by Mary Tomer, one of the company’s account planners. Tomer had come up with the idea and, instead of blogging on the side, had asked her bosses to pay for it.

Now, we have to say that was rather ingenious of her, but we also aren’t so sure we can read the site in quite the same light. It’s difficult to separate the blog from the author, and we thought Mrs. O was an obsessed fashionista, much like ourselves. But for the site to be a marketing tool, something to show future clients as a possible product, well, that makes us feel slightly icky. “They [Bartle Bogle] will be able to use Mrs. O to say, ‘Here’s what we did,’” George Parker, an advertising consultant and writer of AdScam, told the New York Times. “It demonstrates an expertise that’s outside the old parameters of what ad agencies did.”

Oh well, I guess I will stop giving them free advice. I thought they were a bunch of idealistic kids like us. They are already working on a book deal and selling t-shirts. The blog is still cute though.

FYI, Michelle Obama Watch is run by a rag tag group of volunteers. We are not a division of anyone or any thing.Well at least now I don’t feel guilty that we don’t post as many fashion updates as they do.

We’re getting about the same traffic as they are so would y’all be offended If we started selling T-shirts, buttons, mugs, church fans, fannie packs, and comemorative coins??

“First lady. First mom. Mom in chief. No — none of these titles works. And therein lies the problem.  When Michelle Obama moves into the White House, she will inherit a title with no job description as the world watches to see how she performs. So far, media coverage has focused on what she will not be doing — she is taking a sabbatical from her paid career. Obama has described her major role upon entering the White House as that of a mother wanting to help her daughters adjust to their changed lives as children of the president of the United States.”

“Media reports have focused on her Ivy League pedigree and her distinguished career as a lawyer and hospital administrator. By giving up her paid position, the argument goes, she has relinquished the opportunity to be the role model in chief for working mothers. But this thinking underestimates the intricate role of first lady, which will call on all of the skills she has developed as a working professional.”

 “The very debate about whether Michelle Obama is sacrificing her career shows that we must develop a proper perspective about the position of first lady, including a job description for the spouse of the president. Surely the person in one of the most visible roles on the planet deserves a proper title and salary to go along with the intense demands of this most nebulous position, which is, in essence, a job”

Rikleen, who is a partner in a law firm and a published author,  presents a compelling case as to why Michelle should receive a job description and paycheck.  I respectfully disagree with Rikleen’s position. It seems very limiting to confine this distinguished role to a job description and then receive a paycheck for doing the work.  Some people don’t require compensation when they are doing something that they are passionate about. The adage goes, find something that you would do for free and that is where your passion lies.  Now, Michelle has not released her actual programmatic initiatives. However, she has mentioned potential programs in past interviews.  I am fairly certain that what ever she chooses as her national initiatives will be where her passion lies.  I am also fairly certain that compensation will not be expected.

What do you think?  Should Michelle receive a job description and a paycheck for her role as First Lady? 

Posted by Bridgette with http://www.trailblazer-firstlady-blogspot.com. *Photo source is unknown

Michelle is a marketer’s dream. She has immense mass appeal and all levels of the fashion industry are chomping at the bit for a little slice of the Michelle Obama pie.

The writers at Mrs-O.org, who I recognize as fellow Michelle Obama watchers, are also “on watch” for Michelle’s whirlwind impact on the fashion industry. According to the authors, inspiration for the MrsO blog came after Michelle’s appearance at the Democratic National Convention in August 2008.

On December 21st, MrsO featured a sneak peek inside the January 2009 issue of Vogue, which featured this lovely picture of Michelle.

So here’s my big “Hello” and old-fashioned shot-out to the writers at Mrs. O. I appreciate and (of course) understand their zeal for “watching” our near-future First Lady.

Happy New Year to all.

Posted by Hawa from Fackin Truth.