Michelle Obama – July 23, 2008
Michelle Obama, wife of presidential candidate Barak Obama, has recently undergone an image make-over. Her first public impression was caustic and perceived as anti-American with racial overtones. Appearing on television’s “The View”, Michelle wore a smart, cute black and white summer dress with a perky new hair style, completely different from the Michelle that burst on the scene early in her husband’s campaign.
After growing up in Chicago’s South Side in a one bedroom apartment, sharing the divided living room with her brother, Michelle majored in sociology, minored in African-American studies and graduated cum laude at Princeton U., later achieving her J.D. at Harvard Law School. While at Princeton, she wrote a thesis entitled, “Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community.” At Harvard, she participated in political demonstrations demanding the hiring of minority professors.
“Following law school, she was an associate at the Chicago office of the law firm, Sidley Austin, where she first met Barak, who was an intern at that time. She worked on marketing and intellectual property at the firm. She later held public sector positions in the Chicago city government as an Assistant to the Mayor and Assistant Commissioner of Planning and Development. In 1993, she became Executive Director for the Chicago office of Public Allies, a non-profit organization encouraging young people to work on social issues in non-profit groups and government agencies.” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Obama
Michelle became active in Barak’s political life, campaigning in his Illinois Senate, U.S. Congress, and U.S. Senate runs. He lost his bid for U.S. Congress and returned to Illinois where he won a Senate seat. The Obama’s have two young daughters and Michelle limited her campaigning to two days a week, only consenting to stay away from home if their daughters could accompany her. During Barak’s presidential bid, Michelle reduced her professional responsibilities by 80%, traveling extensively. Her mother cares for the daughters while the couple is away.
After Barak’s stump speech to the AFL-CIO forum in Trenton, New Jersey in 2007 in which he criticized Wal-Mart, Michelle resigned her salaried position on the board of TreeHouse Foods, Inc, who supplies Wal-Mart. She still serves on the board of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Combining Obama’s salary as a U.S. Senator, his book royalties and Michelle’s salary at the University of Chicago Hospital and her board member compensations, the Obama’s are millionaires. Yet, it is reported that her widowed mother still lives in the one-bedroom heavily gated and fenced apartment where Michelle grew up. (I wonder why.) Shortly after Barak was elected to the U.S. Senate, Michelle was promoted to VP at the hospital and given a raise from $121,910 to $316, 962, which hospital officials said she deserved.
The question arose: ” How did Barak Obama reach such political heights?” He was educated to become a lawyer and took an internship at Sidley Austin Law Firm, where the very educated and ambitious Michelle Robinson (later Obama) came into his life. She then took a position in the office of Chicago Mayor Richard Daly, offered to her by Valerie Jarrett, then Mayor Daley’s deputy chief of staff.
“That was the start of a long relationship that has paid off politically for Barack Obama, connecting him to Daley’s inner circle.
At City Hall, Michelle Obama forged close and lasting friendships with Jarrett and many other top Daley aides, including former Corporation Counsel Susan Sher and David Mosena, who was the mayor’s chief of staff when Michelle Obama first joined his administration. All have long since left the city payroll, but are loyal to the mayor and now the Obamas.
Their careers also have frequently overlapped, and together they make up a network that reaches into virtually every aspect of Chicago politics.
After leaving City Hall, Jarrett went on to lead the Chicago Transit Authority. She recruited Michelle Obama to the transit agency’s citizen advisory committee. Mosena, who now is president of the Museum of Science and Industry, served with Obama on the Commission on Chicago Landmarks.
Evelyn Pringle on March 28, 2008 in Free Republic called “Obama the Wizard of OZ” and reported:
” When it came time for Obama’s US Senate campaign, Valerie Jarrett became the campaign finance chairman and worked hand and hand with fellow finance committee members, Rita and Tony Rezko, and his former boss at the law firm, Allison Davis, in fundraising endeavors. The committee raised more than $14 million, according to Federal Election Commission records . . . Jarrett is now the CEO of Habitat Co, a real estate development and management firm which manages the housing program for the Chicago Housing Authority, the entity mandated to administer public housing, and she serves as an unpaid advisor to Obama’s Presidential campaign. Mayor Daley’s brother Bill also became an Obama advisor. Mayor Daley’s chief image defender, David Axelrod, is a top strategist for Obama’s campaign and he was also the media consultant for Obama’s US Senate campaign. ” http://arkansasgopwing.blogspot.com/2008/06/obama-business-parter-friend-supp…
Michelle Obama’s “connections” have aided her husband’s rise in the political scene. She is not a typical candidate’s wife, but an integral part of his political success. For some unfathomable reason, Michelle stated that “for the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country” AND “America is a mean country.” Coupled with Barack’s refusal to wear the lapel pin of his own country’s flag and the re-painting of h
is campaign airplane omitting the American flag from the craft’s tail, I have strong doubts that Americans will find this couple belongs in the most revered building in the country – THE WHITE HOUSE. I believe we should reserve that home for those who dearly love and cherish The United States of America.
There is no more time to do nothing.
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