For the first time in her adult life, Michelle Obama is really proud of her cauliflower.
So begins Dana Milbank of all people, in a column with the title Michelle Obama's garden-variety agenda.
Yes, that first line, with its reference back to a comment the First Lady made during the campaign which cause some blowback, we know for sure that Milbank has not been taken over by an alien, and that this is not an April Fool joke. There is just enough of the typical full-of-himself Milbank in that line to assure us this is really him.
And the favorability rating is not Milbank's. It is that of the First Lady, as you will read immediately below the fold (yes I am teasing you to continue):
Avoiding controversy helps Obama keep her sky-high public standing. An Associated Press poll this month found her favorability rating at 71 percent -- substantially better than those of her husband and her two predecessors as first lady. But her low profile also means that she's been underutilized as an advocate of the president's agenda.
Let me offer only two more paragraphs from the column, which I urge you to read. It is Mrs. Obama's words to children as she was planting this year's garden:
"Peas! We did some peas!" she told the kids, recounting the glories of last year's harvest. "We did some onions, and we did a bunch of herbs. Don't you remember? We did chives and garlic and rosemary and all that good stuff. We had blueberries and raspberries and blackberries. Mmmm."
"We harvested over 55 different kinds of healthy food -- 55!" the first lady reported. "One thousand pounds of food! Can you imagine that?"
I have been a strong fan of Mrs. Obama since first encountering her on television in an event at the Wilmington Delaware Opera House during the primary season. In "Watching her, I started to feel oddly sorry for her husband's opponent" I wrote both about my reaction to her appearance and quoted extensively from a column about that appearance (from which I obtained my title).
About two weeks later, I posted Barack's Rock - the Newsweek cover story when Michelle was the cover girl for that national news weekly. The story was by Richard Wolffe. And as I wrote at the conclusion of a diary which quoted extensively from his piece:
Michelle Obama tries to never spend more than one night away from her girls. Periodically her husband comes home off the trail as well, as he did on Valentine's Day.
It is my sense that the more people experience Michelle Obama the more they are going to be favorably inclined towards her husband. I have seen it watching crowd reactions to speeches in Wilmington DE and Los Angeles, and in the press coverage I have read. I encounter it when I watch talking heads who are blown away by her, even people strongly supporting others, whether Asa Hutchinson who supported Huckabee or Paul Begala who is a strong Clinton supporter.
Regardless of whom you support, do yourself a favor. Go online now, and take the time to read Richard Wolffe's article. You really need to get to know this woman.
One of the students I teach was fortunate enough to be among a group of school girls who got to interact with Michelle Obama at the White House. This student, who is not easily impressed, came back glowing not merely for meeting with the First Lady, but because of the genuine warmth Mrs. Obama demonstrated to all the students.
She is real. She is definitely the Rock of Barack. And anyone who has seen her engage on behalf of her husband or of issues about which she cares quickly realizes why her husband calls her "the Closer."
a 71% favorability rating - the only reason it is so low is that there are some who are unfortunately still wearing blinders of politics or of race. She is a remarkable First Lady. Hell, she is a remarkable person, and would be so in any role, from washerwoman to kindergarten teacher to business executive to United States Senator.
I am glad she is our First Lady.
What about you?
Peace.