Lady O

The first lady of the United States. Elegant, beautiful, Jackie O incarnate. The world and the press all seem to agree. Could Michelle Obama be, in a word, Lady O?

I hope and pray she emulates Jackie Kennedy in every conceivable way. I most specifically hope and pray that she stays out of policy as did Jackie Kennedy. That her legacy would be one of babies, redecorating, social diplomacy and elegant parties and style known the world over. The Obama's have clearly been upping the ante in the social arena, Wednesday evening social hours and entertainment would indicate that parties might just be the ticket for Michelle Obama. I suspect it will not be.

In our first Lady O early indications suggest that her kitchen table chat along the lines of policy with the President will not reflect mainstream cultural values but a hard left social policy that will line up nicely with some of the economic policy we now see coming out of the Whitehouse.

Remember her famous Milwaukee stump speech....for the first time in my adult life I am proud to be an American? I'd like to hope that was simply a misspoken line. That the work of the civil rights movement, the work of Martin Luther King, the specific call for the end of communism and the subsequent falling of the Berlin wall was proudly received by our new First Lady. The trillions of dollars of assistance to third world nations and a nation of people that always represent the first line of support and resource to catastrophe around the world might inspire her with American pride. What does the evidence suggest?

All we have for answers is her life and work to judge. Otherwise we shall see as history unfolds before our very eyes. Her life and work suggests that she will be very engaged because she always has been. The quintessential working Mom. Most recently involved as a community outreach coordinator for the University of Chicago, she was very involved in affecting public poilcy. When she met the President she worked one of the most prominent civil rights law firms in the country, Sidley Austin and before that she attended Princeton. Even at Princeton she used language and perspective in her final thesis entitled "Princeton Educated Blacks and the black Community", and would seem to suggest a discriminate disposition toward her white fellow citizens as well as a sense of resignation that she'll need to be like them, or fail. (Read it here.)

Please First Lady Obama, give us Lady O.