Michelle II

According to this article in the New York Times, Obama’s campaign is attempting to give Michelle’s image “a subtle makeover,” making her available to to such stalwart, critical interviewers as Barbara Walters and Whoopi Goldberg on The View. The intent is to bury what the Times is pleased to call “the caricatures of Mrs. Obama s the Angry Black Woman” in hopes of “softening her reputation.”

This attempt may work — anything can be sold with a skillful enough campaign — but in my view it is getting off to a rocky start. Even this puff piece in the friendly, fawning forum of the New York Times takes a few awkward stumbles. For example, Michael Powell and Jodi Kantor report,

[h]er own family crosses racial boundaries — her mother-in-law and a sister-in-law are white — and she has spent much of her adult life trying to address racial resentment.

Are Barack’s mother and sister really “her own family”? On the other hand, as Barack’s own books reveal, his mother was hardly a “typical white person,” which is how he described his grandmother, who raised him, speaking of her alleged racial fears.

And note this revealing example in the article of how Michelle worked to “address racial resentment” after she had been made vice president for community affairs at the University of Chicago hospital.

Hospital brass had gathered to break ground for a children’s building when African-American protesters broke in with bullhorns, drowning out the proceedings with demands that the hospital award more contracts to minority firms.

The executives froze. Mrs. Obama strolled over and offered to meet later, if only the protestors would pipe down. She revised the contracting system, sending so much business to firms owned by women and other minorities that the hospital won awards.

Presumably Mrs. Obama, her handlers from her husband’s campaign, and the New York Times regard this episode as a commendable example of how to deal with “racial resentment.”

Before her husband was elected to the Senate, USA Today reports, Mrs. Obama’s salary from the University of Chicago Hospital was $121,910. After his election she was given a raise to $316,962.

Dealing with “racial resentment” can be quite profitable these days.

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  1. Cobra June 21, 2008 at 5:43 am | | Reply

    John Rosenberg writes:

    >>>”The intent is to bury what the Times is pleased to call “the caricatures of Mrs. Obama s the Angry Black Woman” in hopes of “softening her reputation.”…

    …This attempt may work — anything can be sold with a skillful enough campaign — but in my view it is getting off to a rocky start.”

    I’ve read the post about three times over now, and I’m trying to find out where this “rocky start” is.

    Where does Mrs. Obama appear like “an angry black woman” in the narrative?

    Is she described as angry because she “only” has a white mother-in-law and sister-in-law? Doesn’t that mean she’s MARRIED to a guy who’s half-white as well?

    Does negotiating with loud African-American protesters (as opposed to picking up a bullhorn and JOINING them) make her seem like an “angry black woman?”

    Does getting a raise in salary (but still not close to the level of a beer distributor heiress like Mrs. McCain) make her an “angry black woman?”

    That on its face doesn’t make any sense. If the hospital REDUCED her salary, or downsized her, I’d see a real cause for being angry.

    –Cobra

  2. Richard Nieporent June 21, 2008 at 10:20 am | | Reply

    Does getting a raise in salary (but still not close to the level of a beer distributor heiress like Mrs. McCain) make her an “angry black woman?”

    Cobra, I hereby award you the title of Master of the Non Sequitur.

  3. Cobra June 22, 2008 at 4:09 pm | | Reply

    Richard writes:

    >>>”Cobra, I hereby award you the title of Master of the Non Sequitur.”

    How so? My question was totally in line as a response to John’s statement:

    >>>”Before her husband was elected to the Senate, USA Today reports, Mrs. Obama’s salary from the University of Chicago Hospital was $121,910. After his election she was given a raise to $316,962.

    Dealing with “racial resentment” can be quite profitable these days.”

    Posted by John Rosenberg on June 20, 2008 11:14 PM

    Did you read the same post that I did, Richard?

    –Cobra

  4. Richard Nieporent June 23, 2008 at 12:06 am | | Reply

    Cobra, do I really have to spell it out for you? The non sequitur was your reference to Mrs. McCain. Her income, unlike what it appears was the case for the increase in salary for Mrs. Obama, has nothing to do with her husband being a Senator. So why bring it up?

  5. The Editrix June 23, 2008 at 7:10 am | | Reply

    “her mother-in-law and a sister-in-law are white”

    I thought Obama’s sister was half Asian. Seems that Obama’ entire being somehow confuses people when it comes to race.

  6. Cobra June 24, 2008 at 9:49 pm | | Reply

    USA Today writes:

    >>>””She’s terrific,” added Michael Riordan, who was president of the hospital in March 2005, when Michelle Obama was promoted to vice president for external affairs and had her annual salary increased from $121,910 to $316,962.

    Hospitals spokesman John Easton told the Tribune that Michelle Obama’s salary is in line with those of the 16 other vice presidents at the not-for-profit medical center.”

    Is your argument, Richard, that Michelle Obama SHOULDN’T have been promoted to Vice President for external affairs, or that she should be paid significantly LESS than the other Vice Presidents at the medical center?

    On what basis would you make those arguments, by the way?

    The Editrix writes:

    >>>”I thought Obama’s sister was half Asian.”

    Well, here at Discriminations, Asians are often depicted as “honorary whites”, especially if certain posters want to drive home a particular anti-affirmative action point of view.

    One can easily see how the lines get blurred from time to time.

    –Cobra

  7. Richard Nieporent June 25, 2008 at 12:08 am | | Reply

    Is your argument, Richard, that Michelle Obama SHOULDN’T have been promoted to Vice President for external affairs, or that she should be paid significantly LESS than the other Vice Presidents at the medical center?

    Cobra, actually I was not arguing anything about Mrs. Obama. I was only addressing the fact that you should not have brought up Mrs. McCain in your defense of Mrs. Obama. But now that you mentioned it, the fact that she was only promoted after he became Senator and her raise was 160% gives the appearance of impropriety. People are not normally promoted from office worker to vice president in one step and given a raise of 195K when they are only making 122K. No matter how good you are it would still take a number of promotions to get to that level. As a way of comparison, it would take the same level of credulity to believe that Senator Dodd was not given special treatment by Countrywide in order to believe that she was given that raise solely on merit.

  8. Laura(southernxyl) June 25, 2008 at 7:56 pm | | Reply

    The other point that one could make, of course, is that Cindy McCain is not going around making speeches about how America is a mean country and wondering when she is going to get hers.

  9. Cobra June 26, 2008 at 10:10 pm | | Reply

    Richard writes:

    >>>”But now that you mentioned it, the fact that she was only promoted after he became Senator and her raise was 160% gives the appearance of impropriety.”

    Sigh.

    Let’s go by the record, shall we?

    First the resume:

    >>>”She is a 1985 cum laude graduate of Princeton University; a 1988 graduate of Harvard Law School; a former associate dean at the University of Chicago, and currently a vice president at the University of Chicago Hospitals.

    Michelle, who declined an interview request, sits on six boards, including the prestigious Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools.”

    http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/221458,CST-NWS-mich21.article

    In other words, Michelle Obama, like MANY other people with her academic and professional credentials has more than one income stream.

    Richard writes:

    >>>”People are not normally promoted from office worker to vice president in one step and given a raise of 195K when they are only making 122K. No matter how good you are it would still take a number of promotions to get to that level.”

    Again, let’s look at facts…

    >>>”And at the hospital, Obama was promoted to vice president for community and external affairs in March 2005, two months after her husband took office in the U.S. Senate. (Jarrett said Michelle Obama was repeatedly offered the promotion before that election but turned it down.) The promotion more than doubled her salary from the hospital…”

    “…But the hospital executives who promoted Obama say their decision was based on outstanding performance in the past and, they hoped, in the future.

    Hospital officials say the salary was in line with compensation received by the medical center’s 16 other vice presidents, more than a dozen of whom earned in excess of $300,000. She also earned about 25 percent less than her counterpart at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

    “My concern was that somebody was going to recruit her,” said former U. of C. hospitals President Michael Riordan.

    Losing Michelle Obama, he said, would have been a damaging blow.”

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-070422michelle-story,0,3435637.story?page=4

    I know the facts and the on the record statements by Hospital officials don’t advance the “smear the Obama’s at any cost” strategy that Republicans have seemed to embrace, but I get it.

    I really do.

    Republicans can’t run on the “accomplishments” of their current President, who has the lowest approval ratings in modern history, and they really aren’t wild about Senator McCain, so their tactic is to smear the Obamas.

    That’s a shame, especially on a blog like this one, where African-Americans are constantly admonished to stay in school, excel academically, get married before having children, and work hard within a societal system that has many more opportunities to succeed for minorities than in years past…

    I can’t think of two better role models than the Obamas.

    –Cobra

  10. Richard Nieporent June 27, 2008 at 8:54 am | | Reply

    Cobra,

    Are you really that credulous that you believe the hospital’s self-serving statement defending their promotion of Mrs. Obama? Did you really expect them to say that they promoted her so that they would get earmarks from Senator Obama? If the Hospital was so impressed with her credentials, why didn’t they offer her the VP job to begin with? Oh, wait they repeatedly offered her the job before the election, but she turned them down. (Would you like a $195K raise to $317K, Mrs. Obama? Thanks for asking, but I think I’ll stick with my present salary of $122K.) Sure I believe that. So what made her change her mind? Did they twist her arm or blackmail her? Cobra it just doesn’t pass the smell test.

    By the way Cobra you should know better than to play the racism game with me. It just doesn’t wash. There is nothing in my comments that question the intelligence, ability or educational accomplishments of Mrs. Obama. This thread is an attack on the ethics of the hospital, not Mrs. Obama. Is that really so hard to understand? They were the ones who hoped to benefit from her promotion. When Mrs. Gates was elected to the Duke University Board, nobody was naive enough to believe that it was not done for only one purpose, to get donations from the Gates (and it worked).

    Cobra, if you really believe that Mrs. Obama deserved the promotion, then maybe you should be railing against the Hospital for not originally hiring her as a VP. As someone who has worked in the business world for 38 years I can assure you that you do not offer to hire someone to a position well below what they deserve by way of education and accomplishments. That’s why they have an HR department. HR is supposed to make sure that doesn’t happen, especially to a minority. Since they offered her the job at $122K and she accepted it, it would appear that is what she deserved at the time. If subsequently her work were so outstanding, then I would expect her to get a promotion, but one in line with her previous salary and position. Yes I have known many people who have worked their way up the ladder to a top position at a company, but they did it one step at a time. That, Cobra, is the real fact of the matter and any statement to the contrary by the hospital is just not credible.

  11. Cobra June 27, 2008 at 8:20 pm | | Reply

    Richard writes:

    >>>”If the Hospital was so impressed with her credentials, why didn’t they offer her the VP job to begin with? Oh, wait they repeatedly offered her the job before the election, but she turned them down. (Would you like a $195K raise to $317K, Mrs. Obama? Thanks for asking, but I think I’ll stick with my present salary of $122K.) Sure I believe that. So what made her change her mind? Did they twist her arm or blackmail her? Cobra it just doesn’t pass the smell test.”

    I get. I really do.

    You just don’t like the Obamas.

    You, and your fellow posters certainly have a right not to like them. I think it’s counter-productive to the anti-affirmative action type arguments most of you fling around, but I just wish folks would just come out and say it instead of the kabuki dance about “hospital hiring and promotion practices.”

    Please!

    I’d bet 99 out of a 100 people can’t even name a member of upper level management at their own local medical center, much less the V.P. of External Affairs.

    >>>”This thread is an attack on the ethics of the hospital, not Mrs. Obama.”

    I’m sure that’s how you’d like this to come across.

    Richard writes:

    >>>”Cobra, if you really believe that Mrs. Obama deserved the promotion, then maybe you should be railing against the Hospital for not originally hiring her as a VP.”

    The only people complaining about Michelle Obama’s job, promotion and salary are those who out to smear her as a way to attack her husband.

    Richard writes:

    >>>” Since they offered her the job at $122K and she accepted it, it would appear that is what she deserved at the time. If subsequently her work were so outstanding, then I would expect her to get a promotion, but one in line with her previous salary and position.”

    Hold on…are you proposing a salary cap?

    ????

    Richard, you…of all people, a conservative living in Bushamerica 2008, has a problem with a member of senior level management getting a raise that is “not in line with their previous salary and position?”

    ????

    I…um…uh…wow.

    I guess when it comes to smearing the Obamas there’s no stone unturned, huh?

    Laura writes:

    >>>”The other point that one could make, of course, is that Cindy McCain is not going around making speeches about how America is a mean country and wondering when she is going to get hers.”

    Laura, you have a daughter, so I’ll ask you this. If little Malia Obama is reading this blog post, and sees that no matter how hard her mother worked, how high her grades were in the most prestigious school in the country, how well she does her job, or how much work she’s done on behalf of the community–

    She’s not worth the money. She’s only gotten by on her husband’s name. And if she says anything about these unfair accusations, she’ll be accused of being an “angry black woman”.

    How would you tell Malia Obama that this blog, and the right winged smear machine is not being “mean?”

    –Cobra

  12. Richard Nieporent June 27, 2008 at 11:24 pm | | Reply

    Cobra, I will try one last time to explain it to you. I have worked in industry for 38 years, including 30 years at a not-for-profit company so I understand how they do business. Because companies are afraid of being sued for discrimination, they are very careful to make salaries offers that are in line with a person’s education and experience. The HR department keeps detailed records of the salaries being offered. They will not allow an offer to be made to a woman or a minority that is below what a comparable white male would be offered. Thus Mrs. Obama’s original salary offer was what a person with her background and experience should have gotten.

    Similarly, promotions and salaries are carefully controlled to withstand scrutiny if the company is sued for discrimination. In fact it was you who quoted “hospital spokesman John Easton [who] told the Tribune that Michelle Obama’s salary is in line with those of the 16 other vice presidents at the not-for-profit medical center.” In other words she got the standard salary for the VP position. However, the only way that she could start at $122K and get a 195K raise is if they promoted her at least six steps at one time. The problem is, that just does not happen at a large not-for-profit company. People are promoted one step at a time. It would upset a lot of people if somebody way below them in the organization was promoted above them. Thus the only conclusion that can be drawn is that she was given this multi-step promotion because her husband was just elected Senator. This does not mean that she would not have made it to VP eventually, but not in one fell swoop. It just does not happen at a not-for-profit company.

  13. Cobra June 28, 2008 at 10:32 am | | Reply

    Richard writes:

    >>>”However, the only way that she could start at $122K and get a 195K raise is if they promoted her at least six steps at one time. The problem is, that just does not happen at a large not-for-profit company.”

    You haven’t provided the background, hiring, career path and promotion details of the OTHER 16 Vice Presidents of the University of Chicago Medical Center besides Michelle Obama.

    If you want to prove your point that her promotion and raise was “unusual”, you have to demonstrate that the OTHER 16 promotions were “usual”.

    Perhaps in your experience, Richard, that was the way business was done. I have no reason to doubt your word.

    But when you make a statement like this, and besmirch the reputation of an institution, you need to have more facts at your disposal, otherwise you come off as just another conservative out to smear the Obamas.

    –Cobra

  14. Ynacirema October 4, 2008 at 1:29 pm | | Reply

    Why should a vic-president of a non-profit earn 300,000. How much do they pay the orderlies in this hospital. How about the nurses? 16 vice-presidents for a non-profit. This is no different than the ceo of a charity receiving over a million in salary except that they spread the largesse to a lot more people. It is stil milking the charity.

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