Please don't turn her into Cindy McCain

For those who don't already know, we here at B@B have a huge girlcrush on Michelle Obama. We think she is Teh Awesome, the cat's meow, and the bees knees. You want yer warrior-princess, ladies, here she is. It isn't just that she's tall and gorgeous with arms that most of us could never hope for no matter how much weight work we do and legs like a graphic novel superheroine. It isn't just that she's mothering two adorable little girls who appear to be as poised as their mother. It isn't just the clear mutual respect she has with her husband (otherwise known as the 44th President of the United States [/hope]). No, it's the very outspokenness that gives the pundit corps, racists, and sexists fits; that unfailing shit detector that brought us this immortal exchange with "Stephen Colbert":

But with Michelle Obama being not just the new Hillary in her status as Candidate's Wife As Lightning Rod for Fear and Loathing of Women, but also the focal point for much of the racism that is is no longer acceptable to direct at her husband, the press is now in full "tame the beast" sic> mode, and the right has teamed up with deranged Hillarions like Larry Johnson to spread the lie that there's some kind of tape out there that shows Michelle Obama referring to "whitey."

I was saying to Mr. Brilliant when I first heard of this that there's no way such a thing even exists, because "whitey" is a word that sounds like something a white person would come up with when trying to sound like a black person. In an article in today's New York Times, ominously written by this year's Adam Nagourney and Jodi Wilgoren, Michael Powell and Jodi Kantor, Mrs. Obama lets us know that great minds think alike:

“You are amazed sometimes at how deep the lies can be,” she says in an interview. Referring to a character in a 1970s sitcom, she adds: “I mean, ‘whitey’? That’s something that George Jefferson would say....”

Alas, the article doesn't give her much chance to speak for herself. Instead, in an article that largely covers Mrs. Obama's background, the authors don't miss the opportunity to not just rehash the "whitey" lie, but also revive the old chestnut about her master's thesis and throw in some red meat for those who think that John and Cindy McCain, with Cindy's $100 million, John's $58,000/year tax-free military disablity pension for a disability that doesn't seem to stand in the way of him thinking he's capable of being presidency, and their eight homes, are somehow salt of the earth, by noting Mrs. Obama's salary at her hospital administration job, from which she is now on leave.

Perhaps the most ominous part of the article, however, is Claire McCaskill's admonition to Mrs. Obama as she heads out on the next phase of the campaign, one in which her very hummanness is likely to be unfavorably compared with the blonde, white, aging Barbie doll, frozen-in-the-headlights, Thorazine-stare and complete and utter silence of Cindy McCain:

Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, a close ally of the Obama campaign, says Mrs. Obama must stop sounding like a lawyer trying to win an argument. The trick, she said, is “not pushing so hard to persuade people that Barack is the right one.”

“All she has to do is be likable,” Mrs. McCaskill said.

Here at B@B, we think Michelle Obama is likeable enough (heh) just the way she is.