{"id":9478,"date":"2019-04-17T17:30:05","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T15:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/?p=9478"},"modified":"2019-04-17T17:30:37","modified_gmt":"2019-04-17T15:30:37","slug":"unbecoming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/9478\/","title":{"rendered":"Unbecoming"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Independent<\/em>, perhaps forgetting it’s supposed to report news, runs an advertorial<\/a> on behalf of Michelle Obama, the feminist icon who would be completely unknown were it not for her husband holding high office.<\/p>\n

The former first lady juxtaposed the\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0administration to Barack Obama\u2019s presidency during a wide-ranging\u00a0interview on Sunday to promote her autobiography\u00a0Becoming\u00a0<\/em>in London,\u00a0venting\u00a0her frustrations at the president\u2019s decision to radically overhaul her husband\u2019s legacy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There was a time when former presidents – and by implication, their wives – refrained from criticising their successors. Michelle Obama doesn’t only criticise the current president, but she goes on a world tour to do it, whining about her husband’s “legacy”. I’m not seeing a lot of that “class and grace” here.<\/p>\n

Ms Obama took aim at the billionaire property developer in a series of jibes during which she did not mention him by name. \u201cFor anyone who had any problems with\u00a0Barack Obama, let\u2019s just think about what we were troubled by \u2013 there were never any indictments,\u201d she told a crowd of around 15,000 at the O2.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which is more a reflection on the African-style corruption your husband brought to the US Department of Justice and security services than his behaviour in office.<\/p>\n

The Chicago native, who was interviewed by US late-night host Stephen Colbert, jokingly compared the US with Mr Trump in the White House to being a teenager.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I see. “When they go low, we go high” has become “I’ll go low to make some money.”<\/p>\n

\u201cWe come from a broken family, we are a little unsettled,\u201d Ms Obama said. \u201cSometimes you spend the weekend with divorced dad. That feels like fun\u00a0but then you get sick. That is what America is going through. We are living with divorced dad.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is an interesting analogy, and I have an idea why she picked it. Barack Obama is a living, breathing, example of what happens to a boy when his dad walks out on the family. From the desperate hunting for an identity with different names and an ever-changing backstory to writing whole books about him in the hope of gaining approval, not to mention the pettiness of many of his actions in office, I think Michelle might be projecting just a little bit here.<\/p>\n

Ms Obama, who has been married to the former president for 27 years, said her family\u2019s life had been profoundly different before entering the White House \u2013 describing them as a \u201cnormal family\u201d who had no time to \u201cadjust to the rarified air of politics\u201d when they arrived in Washington.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which explains the entourage of taxpayer-funded servants and lackeys which made the global tours of Diana Ross look frugal by comparison.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were always ourselves \u2013 the presidency does not change who you are, it reveals who you are,\u201d she added in what appeared to be another dig at the current president.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For a supposedly smart woman she’s really bad at commentary. Donald Trump hasn’t changed one jot since entering office: he was a jerk before and he’s a jerk now. Nobody who knew Trump while he was a household name for three decades has noticed any sea-change in character; indeed, the only thing which seems to change is his wife. Whereas what did Obama becoming president reveal about him? That for all his hopey-changey rhetoric he was miles out of his depth, unable to make the leap from community organiser to statesman and from campaigning to governing, leaving behind a country torn apart by identity politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if there has been a president who has been accused of not being born in this country? Who has been asked to show his transcripts? Who has been accused of being unpatriotic? There was a lot of stuff that had not happened before that happened to us.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t know if there has been an American president subject to a rearguard coup by the outgoing administration. Once again, this is more the type of thing you see in Africa. Did you write about that in your book, Michelle?<\/p>\n

\u201cFor eight years, the president they saw in their country was Barack Obama. He was somebody who people thought was smart and would do the right thing.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yeah, and look what happened instead. Michelle Obama is living proof that the left really need cult leaders in their lives, telling them what they want to hear while painting a comforting alternate version of reality. It beats me why they ever stopped going to church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Independent, perhaps forgetting it’s supposed to report news, runs an advertorial on behalf of Michelle Obama, the feminist icon who would be completely unknown were it not for her husband holding high office. The former first lady juxtaposed the\u00a0Donald … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,20,101,44],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9478"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9478"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9480,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9478\/revisions\/9480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}