Let's Stop Dumbing Down Michelle

By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 21, 2009 7:30 PM CDT
Let's Stop Dumbing Down Michelle
Michelle Obama campaigns for her husband, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., at a rally at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colo., Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008.   (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)

Our infatuation with Michelle Obama's arms and spiffy outfits is becoming dangerously dumb, the Economist writes. And no, it's not all the fault of New Yorker covers or Oprah-style adulation. The buck stops on Pennsylvania Avenue, where political groomers fear a backlash if they unveil the real Michelle—the Harvard/Princeton grad who delivered powerful, cerebral speeches on the campaign trail.

Handlers no doubt worry about another Hillary Clintonesque co-presidency, especially from Michelle: "An outspoken black first lady might prove to be even more divisive than an outspoken white one." But consider what America is missing—the mind of a working-class girl who succeeded in top law firms—and you'll want to "hear a bit more about what Mrs Obama thinks and a lot less about what she wears." (More Michelle Obama stories.)

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