Watching Michelle Obama on Larry King Live, I was amazed at her grace, dignity and honesty in the face of John McCain's pathetic excuse for a campaign. However, there was one answer in particular that was so impressive that it almost left Larry King speechless.
Michelle was aked about what she thinks of Sarah Palin juggling her family and her career. Without missing a beat Michelle gave what I thought was an incredible answer.
KING: What do you make of her running for a vice president and having many kids and being a good parent and bouncing all the balls?
M. OBAMA: You know, I think she provides an excellent of example of all the different roles that women can and should play.
You know, I'm a mother with kids and I've had a career and I've had to juggle. She's doing publicly, what so many women are doing on their own privately. What we're fighting for is to make sure that all women have the choices that Sarah Palin and I have. To make these decision and do it without hurting their families. And we're in a position now, as I go across the country and I've had conversations with working women and many find that they have to do the juggling. But, they're doing it without the support.
They're living in communities where jobs have dried up. So, their family members have had to move away so they can't rely on mothers and all those informal support structures. They don't have access to decent child care. They're worrying about health care. So what Sarah Palin and I have that all women deserve is the choice and the resources to make their choices work. And I think that's what we need to fight for.
(Bolding, mine)
She gets to the heart of the issue and masterfully manages to tie herself and Palin in as exmples. Women all over America are doing exactly what Palin is doing, but many of them just don't have the support or the choices that Palin and even Michelle herself enjoy. Michelle articulated the unfairness and injustice of that issue just beautifully, but she wasn't done yet as Larry asked a follow up.
KING: And the Senator shares that view?
M. OBAMA: Absolutely. I mean, he's seen -- you know, Barack's grown up with strong women. He's seen me. He grew up in a household where his grandmother was the primary breadwinner. Saw her juggling to support the entire family. Saw her working her way up from being a secretary at a bank, to being a senior official. His mother was a single parent, saw her struggle in many ways.
He's seen the struggles of women and knows that there's an inequity there. That we're still in this country dealing with pay equity issues for women. Women still earn $0.79 to the dollar, compared to men for the same job. And that's where we have to move from, you know? We have to move out of that inequity and give women the salaries that they need so that in the event that they have to make the choice, or want to make the choice to work, that they're able to support their family like I can, like Sarah Palin can.
Just wonderfully put. So wonderful, in fact that when she had finished speaking Larry seemed to have lost his ability to speak for a few seconds. He smiled and seemed to simply stare in amazement before saying
KING: The extraordinary Michelle Obama. We'll be back in 60 seconds.
I think we can all agree with that sentiment. Extraordinary indeed.