Politico: Michelle Obama is too ambitious.
March 29, 2009 10:28 am ET by Jamison Foser
Politico moves the inane doing-too-much storyline forward with an article about whether Michelle Obama is "spreading herself too thin."
Under the header "Ambitious agenda for first lady," Politico begins:
For the past month alone, here's Michelle Obama's itinerary:
Travel to North Carolina to rally military families. Stand next to Hillary Clinton to encourage women to get politically active. Show up at a home-building site on the National Mall. Visit a D.C. school to talk up good grades. Cap it off by shoveling dirt for a "kitchen garden" at the White House.
Wow, all that in the past month alone? That's more than an event per week!
More Politico:
Ironically, some are raising the same "too much, too fast?" question about Michelle that they're raising about her husband, the president.
That isn't "ironic" at all, particularly when the "some" people are the same people. The fact that the news media is obsessed with whether Barack Obama is doing too much and with whether Michelle Obama is doing too much isn't an example of irony, it's an example of the media's slavish commitment to its storylines -- even if those storylines are nonsense.
And, buried at the end of the Politico article, there is some evidence that is exactly what this is - nonsense:
But she clearly is breaking through and connecting on some level - polls show her favorability ratings in the mid-60s.
Politico just puts forward any ridiculous nonsense that the right wing spouts.
To make matter worse, this story was initially headlined, "Too Much, Too Fast" and was changed a few days later to the more inane "Too ambitious".
This is a pathetic excuse for journalism.
"Doing too much" is a surefire political loser in a world in crisis, and here is politico urging it on.
Have you ever been in a workplace, where someone new comes on board, to take the job of someone who's moved on (or maybe even up), and the new person starts banging the job out, high (and higher) quality, in double-quick time, and does so with style and ease...
Ever seen that before? I have.
And it has the powerful effect of making you reflect on the former person to have held that job, and of how they now seem to have been so slow and lazy and inept in retrospect, and by comaprison to the new WUNDERKIND.
I've seen it before, more than once.
It has the effect of destroying the reputation of the person who formally held the job, and of stinging those who worked with and approved of them.