Shall we all agree?
From Byron York at NRO.
Michelle Obama: “Don’t Go Into Corporate America”
I have a new story today about Michelle Obama’s visit to Zanesville, Ohio, where she met with a group of women at a local day care center…
As she has many times in the past, Mrs. Obama complains about the lasting burden of student loans dating from her days at Princeton and Harvard Law School. She talks about people who end up taking years and years, until middle age, to pay off their debts. “The salaries don’t keep up with the cost of paying off the debt, so you’re in your 40s, still paying off your debt at a time when you have to save for your kids,†she says.
“Barack and I were in that position,†she continues. “The only reason we’re not in that position is that Barack wrote two best-selling books… It was like Jack and his magic beans. But up until a few years ago, we were struggling to figure out how we would save for our kids.†A former attorney with the white-shoe Chicago firm of Sidley & Austin, Obama explains that she and her husband made the choice to give up lucrative jobs in favor of community service. “We left corporate America, which is a lot of what we’re asking young people to do,†she tells the women. “Don’t go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we’re encouraging our young people to do that. But if you make that choice, as we did, to move out of the money-making industry into the helping industry, then your salaries respond.†Faced with that reality, she adds, “many of our bright stars are going into corporate law or hedge-fund management.â€
What she doesn’t mention is that the helping industry has treated her pretty well. In 2006, the Chicago Tribune reported that Mrs. Obama’s compensation at the University of Chicago Hospital, where she is a vice president for community affairs, jumped from $121,910 in 2004, just before her husband was elected to the Senate, to $316,962 in 2005, just after he took office. And that does not count the money Mrs. Obama receives from serving on corporate boards. She would have been O.K. even without Jack’s magic beans.
What can you say about such rank contemptuous hypocrisy? It is, as I mentioned regarding her “no respect for America” speech, not just the Obamas who think this way, it is part and parcel of the entire Democrat/Leftist mindset.
My wife was a nurse at U of C. She says she was the most do nothing selfimportant POS you’d ever see. I guess if you got a raise form 100K to 300K you’d think you were the s–t too.
Interesting how Michelle Obama specifically lashes into corporate law or hedge-fund management. It sounds as though she was directing her swipe at Hillary Clinton and even Chelsea, who works in hedge-funds. I actually hope Hillary will use this as an opportunity to launch back at the Obamas to point out the hypocrisy in Michelle’s statements by revealing Michelle’s wealth, and to warn Michelle Obama to leave references to Chelsea out of the campaign speeches.
I find it very infuriating and disgusting that Michelle Obama, who has had a very privileged life, would discourage young women from making the most of their lives. Even if her comments were made to be a direct swipe at Hillary and Chelsea, she used a public format aimed at a specific group of people who are living in a state that is suffering economically. She gave horrible advice and certainly has not practiced what she preaches through her own associations in the big bad corporate world. She hardly planted the seeds of ‘hope’ her husband keeps promising he’ll magically unleash on every life in the world.
I’m a high school teacher for at-risk youth. You don’t have to go into teaching or nursing to help others. Being the best person you can be (whether you are a lawyer, hedge-fund management, teacher, working or stay-home mom, student, cashier, etc.) and extending a kind word or deed to someone makes all the difference in the world. There is no federal government program, promise or legislation that can spread ‘hope’. Historically, it has done quite the opposite.
Funny how Michelle doesn’t seem to have a problem with her husband raising millions upon millions of dollars for his campaign (hmmm, there’s got to be some corporate $ there), yet she would discourage a group of young women from creating personal wealth in corporate America.
M.O. seems to be telling young people that it is better to continue the mentality of just limiting their aspirations to be a “consumer” rather than an “investor”.
The truth is that we all start out as consumers and there is nothing wrong with that, but the beauty of living in our free world is that we can achieve the American dream of being both a consumer & an investor if we are taught to do so early in our education system.
It sort of reminds me of what I was told early in my youth as a DEM that Republicans were “greedy” and only catered to the “rich”, until I found out the truth. When one is in a position of abundance, one can give back to society in abundance. The key word is “GIVE BACK” which is truly a choice.
The Obama’s distort the teachings of JFK who is remembered with his famous speach “Ask NOT what your country can do for you, ask what YOU can do for your Country”.
This speach implied “volunteerism” which was the spirit of establishing the Peace Corps, however, it did not imply that one has to be self-sacrificial and forfeit one’s entrepreneurship aspirations. Leave that to the communists.
I doubt they are telling their little girls to drop their dreams of following in their parent’s steps. Is this a “do as I say”, instead of a “do as I do” moment??
So much for the Obama/JFK comparison. Shame on them.
Sure is tough for a sista to make it in this racist, Jim Crow world huh. Does anyone else see the irony of her writing her thesis on inequality from the halls of PRICETON!?!?!? I swear on all that is good and holy, these nuts are taking elitism to an art form.
That’s PRINCETON y’all, sorry.
Cry me a river!!! No one told her to go to an ivy league school. She has financial obligations, just like everybody else. Give me a break. She’s had the ultimate advantage. Why complain about that. And she needs to stop biting the hand that feeds her husband’s campaign. Those corportions and hedge-funds are doling out the dough.
This woman epitomizes the limousine liberal left. Talk about “Audacity.” For all her ivy league credentials, she’s not very bright if she believes that thinking people can’t see right through her.
MO is not running for office, folks. Let’s keep the debate where it belongs. When she is running for office, then she’s fair game.
People can form their own conclusions about what is being said out there.
WK this entire discussion is about MO and her comments, what do you mean “Let’s keep the debate where it belongs”, lol? Whom would you have us discuss in this particular discussion?
Because the woman is not the candidate, she is off limits to criticism and rebuttal? Heck, her husband IS running for president and he is virtually off limits, or treated as such by the media, so I guess she may as well be too.
Anyway, what does she mean they were struggling to determine how they would save for their kids, LOL? Their poor, shoeless starving kids, right? They’re saving for Harvard and Princeton, trying to pass themselves off as ‘just like the little people’, just making ends meet huh?
WK –
Let’s get something straight: MO may not be running for office, but I don’t see her husband distancing himself from her comments – and he won’t. Furthermore, as a First Lady, she will use that position to continue her rhetoric and be a role model for many women especially in what will be a historic election if Obama makes it to the top.
Her comments were so hypocritical and flat out stupid & wrong, really. Because of such, we have indeed formed our own conclusions and are speaking out about it.
As I recall, there was another First Lady who wasn’t running for office in 1992 who had an awful lot of influence during her husband’s presidency and nearly changed the healthcare industry. One doesn’t have to be elected to be of influence.