Obama: My Wife's Remarks About Family Are Never About Hillary

Obama: My Wife's Remarks About Family Are Never About Hillary
By Greg Sargent | bio

On a conference call with Dem Rep. Patrick Murphy today, Barack Obama said that his wife repeatedly says on the stump, "If you can't run your house, you can't run the White House."

But Obama said that Michelle is never referring to Hillary when she uses this line. He said:

“Anybody who’s listened to Michelle on the stump knows she talks about the importance of family. There are no references beyond her point that we’ve had an administration that talks about family values but doesn’t follow through on it.”

Meanwhile, a new video has surfaced of Michelle making the comment. Here's how she put it this time:

"One of the things, the important aspects of this race is role modeling what good families should look like. And my view is that if you can't run your own house, you certainly can't run the White House."

Lacking the context here, one could interpret this, if one wanted to, as a subtle suggestion that all the candidates are showcasing their families, and that this should be a consideration in choosing the next President. If you do read it this way, however, it's unclear why you'd automatically see this as a reference to Hillary.

Meanwhile, one could also just as easily interpret her remarks here as saying that she views role modeling her own family as a key aspect of the campaign.

http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/aug/21/obama_my_wifes_remarks_about_family_are_never_about_hillary

:shrug:

The only ones saying that Michelle was referring to Hillary are the right-wingers.

Michelle has used this line plenty of times, and I never associated it with the Clintons.

At least, he can recycle the line should he face Rudy in the GE.

Everybody can see that Hillary was extraordinarily successful at holding her family together. My first thought was the dysfunctional Bush family.

I just see it as an obvious jab keenly delivered by a female surrogate of the campaign.

It is a campaign not a tea party after all.

Guiliani is the candidate whose family dysfunctions and serial adulteries are legion. I'm not crazy about Hillary as candidate, but she sure as hell kept her own house together through thick and thin -- and there's not a democrat or independent who doesn't know that. Even most Repubs acknowledge that she hung in there. Michelle is anything but an idiot. There's no way she would aim this remark at Hillary.

I don't even get how the statement is construed as relating to Hillary.

He looks like he's gotten past his stumbles of a couple weeks ago.

I can't imagine why anyone would assume she meant the Clintons, anway, and especially not Hillary. She was the one cheated on, which is hardly a reflection of the way she runs her house. The Clintons--unlike most Republicans--stayed together and raised a wonderful child to adulthood. They should be held up as an example of family, and I would suspect that both Obamas would agree with that.

methinks.

Many chips on many shoulders.

one of those family value thingys

George Bush never admitted drug or alcohol use,Obama has in his book.Don't you guys get it.The right wing will have an ad."This is Barak Obama ,this is Barak Obama on drugs."You can bet that is all we will defend in the general election,and loose it. People in America are stll talking about"i didnot inhale."Hell how many times did we refere to Bush as "mcspoon".

It's an open secret about George Bush and coke and he got elected.

It's the 21st Century. At this point in time, I doubt that there are very many people in the country who don't know someone who has inhaled. It's rapidly becoming a non-issue. Only really matters to people who are unlikely to vote for a Democrat in the first place I would guess.

Just another avenue for whining.

If it was a jab at anyone it would be Giuliani. :shrug: But then I didn't think it was really a jab at anyone until I read some of the replies here on DU.

It was obviously the talking point of the day for Repukes, straight from the Drudgereport. One wonders if Drudge is the instigator in this case--or the conduit.

Say what you want. It sounded like a shot (and a good one, too) at Hillary.

In politics, perception is everything. Don't say ANYTHING that can be misinterpreted. Michelle needs to learn that if she's going out on the stump.

Bake

when it comes to Hillary and Bills marriage.

Of course,not being a Hillary fan makes me less defensive about it,so who knows.

On First Read with Chuck Todd he talks about the way this thing went from just part of Michelle's speech and no real meaning to anyone but, about family to something controversial.
The title of the article is Anatomy of a Controversy

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/

anyone who read the full context can clearly see that. she made a comment about Obama being a good father or something similar and then she made that other statement after that.

Would fall for same stuff as for Iraq War.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/printedition/chi-0409250111sep25,1,4555304.

http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20070701faessay86401/barack-obama/renewing-american-leadership.html

Goggle Barack Obama Iran

He is a DLCer like HRC and Liebermann.
I will vote Dem in the general elections, in the Primaries, I am votig DK!

Start your own thread.

"If you can't run your house, you can't run the White House."

The US government is the biggest corporation in the country. Running your house and heading up a corporate business as CIC are as dissimilar as day is to night.

Each and every time they open their mouths, they piss someone off!
Someone should ask the O-bomb-a's how their regurgitated Bush meme, "I'm a uniter, not a divider" is working for them?
Ooops, low polling numbers?

For better or for worse, it's not such a good idea to limit the Presidency to those who model what good families look like (whatever the hell that means). FDR allegedly committed adultery with a number of women. He still seemed to do OK as President. Should we look at the behavior of the children of a Presidential candidate to determine whetther he's suitable for the job? Democrats have so many easy targets to build a campaign on (health care, education, end to Empire, end to Forever War, global warming etc.), they don't really need to spout soundbites from the Moral Majority archives.

If you read what she said, you would know that she was talking about her own family. That line wasn't an attack line.

From the OP:

Meanwhile, a new video has surfaced of Michelle making the comment. Here's how she put it this time:

"One of the things, the important aspects of this race is role modeling what good families should look like. And my view is that if you can't run your own house, you certainly can't run the White House."

In her opinion, there are people (Giuliani? Clinton? FDR?) who don't model what good families should look like. These people, in her view, can't run the White House. That's an attack on those people she considers guilty of not modeling what good families should look like. Perhaps she can clear things up by detailing what kind of families meet her standards. I'm sure the Moral Majority is more than willing to help her clarify her remarks.

That one of the most important things that we need to know about the next President of the United States is, is he somebody that shares our values? Is he somebody that respects family? Is a good and decent person?

So our view was that, if you can't run your own house, you certainly can't run the White House. So, so we've adjusted our schedules to make sure that our girls are first, so while he's traveling around, I do day trips. That means I get up in the morning, I get the girls ready, I get them off, I go and do trips, I'm home before bedtime. So the girls know that I was gone somewhere, but they don't care. They just know that I was at home to tuck them in at night, and it keeps them grounded, and, and children, the children in our country have to know that they come first. And our girls do and that’s why we're doing this. We're in this race for not just our children, but all of our children.


(WOW! She sure was attacking Clinton, FDR, and Giuliani with that quote. NOT!)

Get a grip. Like I said. She was talking about her own family

that refer just to her own family.