Malena Amusa

Michelle Obama for President

Everybody’s been talking about Michelle Obama these days.

Since she announced her decision to leave her high-ranked job at the University of Chicago hospitals to join Barack Obama on the campaign, she’s had more time to make speeches and do interviews.

In the process, top journalists continue asking her to explain what it means for her husband Barack Obama to be a Black man running for presidency.

And every time, Mrs. Obama slam dunks the answer and offers stronger race analysis than Mr. Barack. Overall, she uses less political correctness to interrogate the issues. And I love her for it. She ought to be campaigning for her own presidency.

Take this February video for example. When asked if she’s concerned about Obama being assassinated because of his race and position, Mrs. Obama said: “as a Black man, he could get shot at a gas station.”

And in a recent interview with ABC , Michelle Obama breaks down the whole problem with the “clean” and “articulate” portrayals of Obama that is a much more pointed rebuttal than Barack Obama has allowed himself to give. ABC reported today:

[Michelle] Obama said that the media has presented distorted images of the black community in America.

“As we’ve all said in the black community, we don’t see all of who we are in, in the media. We see snippets… of our community and distortions of our community,” she said. “So the world has this perspective that somehow Barack and Michelle Obama are different, that we’re unique. And we’re not. You just haven’t seen us before.”

After watching the ABC video of the interview, I realized why Michelle is able to be the typical Strong Black Woman. In reality, she has to be. Her presentation is a well-engineered counter to Barack’s Black masculinity that has been attacked for being diluted. Michelle proves Barack’s Black authenticity by her being so home-grown, down-home, and straight-up on the issues.

Further, if Barack had said some of the things Michelle has, he’d be lumped under the Black nationalist umbrella held up by Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton, and so many white people probably wouldn’t like him as much. And because of this, Michelle, more so than Barack, can say what she means and mean what she says. To me, Michelle is the saving grace of Obama’s campaign.

Posted at 9:51 AM, May 22, 2007 in Obama | Permalink | View Comments