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America's new Jackie O is called Michelle, supporters say
2008-06-23
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Michelle Obama, the wife of the presumptive Democratic contender for the White House, has come under fire for being allegedly unpatriotic, pushy, even racist. She has been called her husband's "bitter half" and "Mrs Grievance" by conservative media, who claim she harbors a grudge against whites and is forever moaning. And a poll released this week by the Pew Research think-tank showed that more Americans consider her more controversial than Cindy McCain, the wife of the presumptive Republican candidate for the presidency, John McCain. In short, Michelle Obama is taking a lot of flak. So now, she is rolling out a new image. She's getting some help from her husband's campaign, which this week appointed Stephanie Cutter, communications director to John Kerry in his bid for the presidency in 2004, as chief of staff to 44-year-old Michelle. Obama herself took a giant step towards casting herself in a softer light this week with an appearance on a daytime, network television chat show for women. The hour-long appearance on ABC Television's "The View" won the towering mother of two (Obama is five feet, 11 inches -- around one meter 82 centimeters) heaps of praise for everything from her dress sense to her intelligence. "She comes across as incredibly bright," Frank Settipani, a cancer doctor and haematologist from Colorado told AFP of the Princeton and Harvard educated Obama. Thyra Lees-Smith of Los Angeles said in an entry on Obama's Facebook page that she was "the picture of graciousness, style and extraordinary intelligence" on The View. "But what really impressed was that she managed to be all of those things without seeming snotty, distant or unapproachable. As much as I love Jackie O, I think Michelle Obama takes the cake in terms of sheer class," wrote Lees-Smith. And Cara Berg Rainey, a soldier in the US army, hailed Obama for bringing "the same ideals and beauty and elegance that Jackie O brought" to the White House. But winning over Americans with wit and grace isn't the only task facing Obama. She also has to erase the negative press she gets. Twenty-eight percent of respondents to a telephone survey conducted by Pew Research earlier this month said they had heard negative comments about Obama in the media. Seven percent said the same about Cindy McCain. Pew surveyed 1,006 people for the poll. The media -- and Cindy McCain -- have called Obama's patriotism into question after she said on the campaign trail in February: "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country." The clenched fist "dap" she affectionately gave her husband on the night he clinched the Democratic nomination from Hillary Clinton was dubbed "a terrorist fist jab" by Fox News. Obama took both by the horns on The View. She greeted the show's presenters, including big media names Whoopi Goldberg and Barbara Walters, with a "dap", explaining that it was the new high five -- a common American greeting which involves slapping raised hands -- and that she had picked it up from staffers on Barack's campaign. Asked by Walters about her pride-of-country statement in February, Obama replied: "I'm a girl who grew up in a working class neighborhood in Chicago -- let me tell you, of course I'm proud. Nowhere but in America could my story be possible." Obama also cast herself as able to cross the political divide and forget rivalries to give praise where it is due. "Obama managed to defend her patriotism, chronicle her hardscrabble beginnings and salute Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush -- all while chatting cheerfully about the horrors of pantyhose and her love of bacon," wrote Michael Saul, political correspondent of the New York Daily News, the day after The View. On Facebook, which is proving to be another vector for the positive reshaping of America's new Mrs O, she lists "hanging out with my husband, Barack, and our daughters, Malia, 9, and Sasha, 6" as one of her favorite activities and her interests as "being a mom and Sudoku". Michelle Obama had 25,245 supporters on Facebook as of Friday morning -- 24,843 more than Cindy McCain's 402. One of Obama's Facebook supporters is actress Hillary Ward, of California. "I like her outspokenness, I like the fact she's a good mother, I like the work she and Barack have done in Chicago's tough neighborhoods," Ward told AFP. "And I like the fact that she's human, not a robotic Stepford wife," she said, referring to the 1970s movie in which suburban housewives are turned into robots to serve their husbands' needs.
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