Michelle Obama has a new defender from those who say she isn’t patriotic enough — First Lady Laura Bush. In an interview with ABC News, Bush said that Obama’s February remark that she was proud of the United States “for the first time in my adult life” was misconstrued.
“I think she probably meant ‘I’m more proud.’ That’s what she really meant,” Bush said from Afghanistan.
“You have to be really careful in what you say because everything you say is looked at and in many cases misconstrued,” she said.
Some commentators have said the remarks show that Obama, wife of likely Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama, does not love her country.
Bush also praised her White House predecessor, Hillary Clinton, who formally ended her bid to be the first female president on Saturday.
“Well of course, I want the woman president to be a Republican woman,” Bush said, when asked whether she was sorry to see Clinton’s campaign end.
“But I will say I watched the campaign and I admired Hillary’s grit and strength,” she said.
“I have to say I had a lot of admiration for her endurance,” she added.
Bush, who has endured five political campaigns with her husband dating back to the 1970s, said she would not run for office herself.
Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.
Photo credit: Top: Reuters/Jason Reed (Barack and Michelle Obama board plane in Chicago recently); Bottom: Reuters/Larry Downing (Laura Bush visits Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan)
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EricP, your post reminds me of a thought I had heard many years ago, about the way that people love America. Some love America the way a 2-year old child loves his mother; as a do-no-wrong source of perfection and protection. Others love America the way a 35-year old loves his mother; recognizing her humanity, her flaws, and loving her for the entire picture, good and bad.
This isn’t simply a conservative versus liberal approach, of course, but I think the sense of conservatives versus progressives. I think that those of us who sought change for this country do so because of an understanding that there is no such thing as a perfect country, but there is such a thing as a quest for perfection. America is flawed, but it is also a land capable of correcting itself and of allowing its people to state, in no uncertain terms, that the time has come for a different direction. It is not America’s perfection I love, because seeking a perfect nation would leave me adrift in this world. There is no perfection to be found. No, it is not America’s perfection that I love, it is her course, wary though it may be, toward true equality and justice.
- Posted by MikeR[...] already said: Laura Bush Praises Clinton, Defends Michelle Obama | The Trail | washingtonpost.com Tales from the Trail
- Posted by Obama, The truth about him and his background (WATCH VID)!!!!!!!! - Ford Mustang ForumsEarlier this year, Michelle Obama, Senator Barack Obama’s wife, made the comment that “for the first time in my adult lifetime I am proud of my country, because it is ready to embrace change.”
In front of a white Republican audience the day after those remarks, Senator John McCain and his wife Cindy weighed in on them. Cindy McCain said to the audience “I have always been proud of my country.” Her husband said the same, with both receiving applause and cheers.
People in the McCain campaign, a number of strident talk show hosts, Republican politicians, journalists, political pundits, and media political analysts became a large chorus denouncing Michelle Obama for what its collective voice said was her lack of loyalty and patriotism to the United States.
Blacks were to be dominated, confined, and excluded in their own country. Whites endeavored to do this by enslaving Blacks, denying them human, political and civil rights, subjecting them to racist laws and racist segregation, by public denigration, by denying or diminishing their education, by denying them employment opportunities, access to health and medical care, forcing them to live in poor neighborhoods, and by subjecting them to various forms of violence.
Senator John McCain and his wife Cindy were adults when much of this gross mistreatment of Black people was occurring. They said that they had always been proud of their country, without any qualifying language. That means, then, on the basis of their own words, they were proud of this country when it was treating Black people the way it was doing.
- Posted by W D WrightMichelle is a bright, outspoken lawyer who came from a family where education was seen as the way out of the ghetto. Her parents worked hard for her to get the education she did. She has every right to say what she wants without a bunch of people calling her unpatriotic. Laura Bush is married to a man who singlehandedly wiped out the goodwill of this country around the world and is responsible for dead babies and blind and hungry children. Gracious is so unimportant when you are married to a murderer who talks like he has early onset dementia. Gracious would be to walk out on him and never look back and support his impeachment.
- Posted by AnnThank you for posting the whole quote westerner22. For people that are open minded and who make an attempt to comprehend what Michelle is saying, it’s easy to understand. And for those who insist on denigrating her as unpatriotic, stop for a minute and think of the shape the country is in right now.
She’s from Chicago where some 35 school kids have been shot in the past year, in their schools, on the school bus, on the streets. Not something to be proud of. There is an unending war going on that has cost 4,100 Americans their lives and tens of thousands have grievous injuries. Most Americans aren’t proud of that. More than a millian Americans have had their homes foreclosed and thousands more are losing their jobs everyday. Nothing to be proud of there. Tens of millions of Americans don’t have health care. Absolutely shameful in such a rich nation. I could go on.
So now huge numbers of people are hearing about Barack’s dreams of what America can do and be and they’re registering to vote in record numbers. That’s something to be proud of and that’s what Michelle is so excited about. Of course she’s proud of the country that gave a young lady from the mean streets of the south side of Chicago the opportunity to achieve as much as she’s achieved. Of course she’s proud of the country that gave her husband, a skinny black guy with big ears and a funny name, the opportunity to be president. That she’s more proud of her country now than she’s ever been before is a perfectly natural emotion for her to have.
- Posted by sharonI think Mrs. Bush is a true first lady. She has a lot of class and is very eligant. Even though I disagree with President Bush on a lot of his policies, I think he is good man and probably a wonderful dad.
- Posted by Calvin JohnsonThe full quote:
“What we have learned over this year is that hope is making a comeback. It is making a comeback. And let me tell you something–for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment. I’ve seen people who are hungry to be unified around some basic common issues, and it’s made me proud.” [New York Times, 2/19/08] MICHELLE OBAMA
Now I REALLY like you, Mrs Bush! ( = I have liked Mrs. Bush before)
If you don’t get it, get an English class!
- Posted by westerner22Indga, you better take an English class!
Laura Bush is a Librarian by profession, and for her degree she needed to pass some reading comprehension classes. She is also an intelligent person. So I am not surprised that with her librarian ethical approach to freedom of speech she underscored the only meaning that Michelle Obama’s remark may have in the English language; That Michelle Obama has always loved her country, only that now with a candidate for Change winning, she is even more proud. God bless you, Mrs. Bush. It takes a librarian! Now I am really proud of you.
- Posted by westerner22It is not surprising that Laura Bush’s approval ratings double these of her husband. Now they should triple.
Michelle Obama is a lawyer by profession. She knows her words well. To construe her remark as unpatriotic, the MSMs as well as the recent GOP negative ad had to falsify the tape of her speech by removing the word “really” from the whole sentence. Without this adverb the sentence has a very different (=unpatriotic) meaning.
With it, it may only mean what Laura Bush said yesterday. Since February many linguists have discussed the remark and pointed to an evident glitch in the the video where the word “really” is cut out, see youtube where both versions float
I belive her comments were taken ou of context, and I admire Mrs. Bush for her comments on Mrs Obama.
Esteban Leon
- Posted by Esteban LeonCaracas-Venezuela
EricP, you don’t believe it because you don’t want to believe it. As you pointed out, you are a die hard Republican, so you don’t have time to explore real issues. You’d rather believe anything that Bill O Reilly says. That’s why we’re in Iraq and that’s why we’ll be there for 100 years if McCain is elected, because you are a die hard Republican. What in the world does it say about you when you vote based on party affiliation and not issues? Are you brainwashed or something? Die hard Republican?
- Posted by kat1parkAs a die-hard conservative, I’ve always assumed that her words were misconstrued. I don’t believe for a moment that she’s really proud of her country even today.
Face it, if her country was really something she was so proud of, she wouldn’t feel that it was in need of so much “change”.
It’s the fundamental problem of progressives: how do you truly love a country that requires so much progress to perfect? Progress that only you and your fellow travelers can lead, of course.
- Posted by EricP