People are making some hay about this photo of First Lady Michelle Obama
Now, as much as I like to bash her for her previously stated dislike for her lot in a wonderful life, and wearing expensive shoes to feed the homeless, and $100/lb steak at the White House...I can't bash her for this photograph.
Photos are but an instant in time. Sure they can reflect the emotion of a person, but they can just as easily be misleading. Emotions take moments, even seconds to express. Thus taking a sliver of that expression as it evolves can produce a snapshot of something entirely different.
Lets take a case in point... Do we really think that President Bush looks like this?
Of course not...these were but slivers in time during an emotional expression. But hey, the left sure did love to use them to advance their case that he was a dunce and a moron.
Now was the First Lady scowling at Carla Bruni...maybe...maybe not. We just don't know. (In fact if you ask me, based on the angles, I would say she is looking *behind* Bruni)
My ultimate point is, there will be plenty of fodder for which to criticize the hypocritical First Lady, but lets not start the meme that an alleged scowl proves that she is a mean bitch. To do so would be no better than how the left treated Bush....and we need to remind ourselves that we are better than them....
UPDATE: Thanks again to Instapundit for the Instalanche! I have also fixed the bad picture. One drawback to a job where you can't read 'blogspot' sites or access Blogger...I didn't know it was an issue until I got home tonight. For the same reason, I haven't read the comments yet....
UPDATE II: Well I certainly am getting beat up in the comments... But if you think I am soft on Obama, look around the rest of the blog and decide for yourself.
In the end, I don't necessarily disagree that she might be a shrew, or a cold-hearted bitch, or whatever else. But I was simply stating that based on my photographic experience, this picture doesn't "prove" any of that, no more than Bush's funny faces "proved" he was allegedly an idiot. If you want to spotlight the arrogance of the First Lady, use her words against her. There are certainly plenty of those to go around.
But ultimately I think there are plenty of bigger issues to go after besides discerning the temperament of the First Lady.
UPDATE III: Now almost 2 years since I published this post, I noticed that the Yahoo News image of Mrs Obama and Carla Bruni that I originally used was blank. A search of Yanhoo News images for "Obama + Bruni" now gets ZERO his. So it appears that someone put that official image down the memory hole. Thank goodness for the internet....there are plenty of other copies out there....
37 comments:
Actually what these pictures make me do is give me a powerful longing for the good old days during the Bush administration. (If only we'd known, we might have enjoyed them more.)
If the left and the government run media can fawn over her then certainly we can make fun of her now and then.
Is the picture some indictment of her as some horrible person? Nope. Is it fair to take a snippet of time and use it to ridicule her for it? Probably not.
But it's not as if the Left hasn't earned EVERY LAST BIT OF SCORN anybody should care to heap on them. For the ENTIRE Reagan administration, the entire GHWBush term, for every last millisecond of GWBush's presidency, and for every Republican campaign in between the Left displayed such disgusting bigotry, such absolute depravity that you couldn't cause me to care less how an innocent little potshot makes them feel.
and we need to remind ourselves that we are better than them
... at losing.
get it?
The time to play nice is DONE! If we continue to wimp out we will continue to lose.
Attack, attack attack. Never let an opportunity pass to knock the Obamas off the pedestal the press has placed them on.
PERIOD>
You like losing? Fine, you play by the genteel rules.
Me? I'm doing what needs to be done, like I did in the military.
And if the Obama's aren't big enough to standup to such ridicule, so much the better.
The first picture of Bush isn't showing up; but the other two Bush photos look like deliberate mugging for the camera, not "unguarded" moments like the Michelle Obama photo.
But the ridicule inspired by her photo will be useful if it makes her realize that she is "on stage" 24/7 and that for her, her husband, for everyone in the public eye, there can be no such thing as an "unguarded moment."
BTW; Luke's comment FTW!!
I am willing to cut the Obamas as much slack as the left gave Bush.
None.
She is fat and ugly, but she sure is mean.
They degrade us every opportunity they get.
We should fight back with the same weapons they are using.
Ridicule is the best weapon because there is no defense.
We need a sustained campaign to ridicule the doofus-in-chief and his brawny wife (but don't jeopardize your real-world relationships by being a politics-obsessed ass in real life; you don't need to ridicule Obama to liberals any more than you liked it when liberals would ridicule Bush to your face).
Obama certainly ridiculed and insulted us. His own campaign was spreading rumors about Trig's parentage. He learned well from Alinsky. We could learn a thing or two.
* * *
This isn't just about partisan politics, it's about saving the country. The only way Obama starts acting responsibly is if his popularity drops below 40%. So that's our mission: make Barack Obama unpopular. If making an unfair, juvenile attack on his wife will move us closer to our goal, then that's just what we're going to have to do.
Is it fair to take a snippet of time and use it to ridicule her for it? Probably not.
Its fair. I have been using the photo to gleefully mock Michelle Obama as a racist pig with a chip on her shoulder.
And yes, I'm well aware that this photo "is but an instant in time" that can "easily be misleading". Its just as likely that she's scowling at Bush-bashers across the street. Thats not the point.
The point is that the photo is symbolic of Michelle's perspective. We've all seen that "look" before - its the angry countenance of the local race-baiter who blames "Whitey" for all his problems.
Yeh we should lay-off, like every grim and mean picture of Cheney that was never published, right?
What I saw in that picture of Michelle was exhaustion and, perhaps, unhappiness that the vaunted presidential gig hasn't turned out to be as much fun as either she or Barry thought it would be.
Well Charlie your out numbered on this one, and I am with them.
The woman is a shrew, and playing nice, or taking the high road is over.
Alls fair, save the country
Well stated, I sure wish that those of us on the right wouldn't have to stoop to these kinds of tactics.
We have the better ideas and the right solutions, let the left play around in the mud.
Jeez. I would rather gouge out my own eyes than look at this classless beeyotch or her Marxist Thug hubby. Seriously.
I prefer the picture of Piper Palin giving the two-finger salute. Everyone was all "oh, that's Photoshopped, she didn't really flip him off!" Except that she did...if you're British.
So you are a little upset that people are taking the time to point out the EXTREME ANGER of one Michelle Obama and you think you are part of the solution?
You are a part of the problem!
There is little wonder the lady is scowling. The media continues to dote on her great beauty, yet sitting there it becomes obvious what a big lie that is.
You keep fighting by the Marquess of Queensberry rules, the rest of us are gonna get serious about doing whatever it takes to oppose the liberals.
Remember, fighting the Germans "at their level" did not turn us into them at all.
You would make the Chinese government proud. The left and media are constantly bombarding us with story after story of how glamorous and beautiful Michelle is, but when an unflattering (i.e. real) photo emerges that shows what she really looks like or casts her in a negative light, we must censor!
This plays right into Obama's hands--play hardball all along during the primaries then scream bloody murder when someone would turn the tables. Of course turning the tables and being "mean" is simply showing a photo of a woman who (a) is a public figure and (b) knew her photo would be taken at a public event. How dastardly those on the right are!
Yeah, I have to add... she wanted the job, now she gets to enjoy the crap that comes with it.
You treat people how to treat you... So guess what the left taught Conservatives in the past 8 years.....
"Photos are but an instant in time. Sure they can reflect the emotion of a person, but they can just as easily be misleading."
Or, alternately, not.
I agree. The time to be nice is over.
If there were only one or two photos of her with the scowl, then I might let it go as one of those moment in time photos. But there are far too many of her with this face on for me to think these represent nothing but the truth and grace of this woman.
Sorry: Michelle Obama has shown herself to be a mean, not-terribly-attractive person. This photo "speaks truth to power." I have a feeling we'll see it again and again and again....
I'm sorry, but is Michelle Obama in the picture? I just see a fine French woman.
I'm with Charlie, in the abstract... My poor husband has HORRIBLE photographic timing, such that just about every extant picture of him shows his eyes half-closed, his mouth half-smiling, as if he's pretty much drunk his volume in whiskey or something. And Michelle Obama has shutters clicking at her constantly. Even those paid to be beautiful don't look good in every frame.
Bigger question is whether there were better frames than this one available, and if so, why this one was used.
And outside the theoretical realm, I feel no sympathy for those who assertively seek the public eye and then find that it doesn't blink when they want it to. (I never saw Mrs. Bush as one of these; she seemed to me throughout GWB's campaigns and terms to want to keep to herself as much as possible. Unfortunately for her, that's not in the cards for a First Spouse. But fortunately for us, she's a woman of cheerful temperament and friendly demeanor.)
Beating up on the First Lady is a REAL TURNOFF to registered voters everywhere.
Trust me on this. Laura Bush remained popular throughout the hapless Presidency of GW.
Conservatives need to lay off Michelle. Period.
Laura Bush was popular, ok. How was Nancy Reagan treated by the media?
Right on! We are better than them, smarter than them, and it just doesn't matter if they like us.
Charlie Foxtrot,
It's about influencing the 15 to 30percent of the voting population that knows little about the candidates or the parties or the the realities of todays politics beyond the headlines and the photos and the workplace scuttlebutt. If the right side "plays fair" it yields these voters to the left.
The mainstream left followed the extreme left across the fairness line some years ago. You play nice now you lose. What's more important to you? The future of the country and your children and the world or your sense of fairness?
Michelle "O" is the most butt ugly First Lady since Eleanor!
And the most useless P.O.S since what? She makes Mamie look good!
Sorry, but I really dislike(hate)our rock-star MSM First Family. Well, the kids would probably be OK if Sarah could adopt them.
LoL
Look, she's been a fine First Lady so far and I'm a big O basher, but I couldn't help putting the following in the imaginary bubble: "That bit-h married a conservative...and he's French so she's probably getting better sex, too."
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