Should Michelle Obama be off limits?

I don't believe that should be the issue! I believe the issue should be that fact that Barack is defending the woman he loves! I am happily married and would do the same thing! I would not want to see my wife attacked for something I am doing. However, I am sure he knows that because he is running for president and the attacks on his wife will be part of the territory. I also believe he is trying to set the tone that he is willing to go toe-to-toe with the Republican attack dogs. It has been proven that turning the other cheek does not work against the Republicans. Again, I find this act to be extremely presidential.

I believe it shows he has a backbone, he is willing to stand-up to the Republican machine and take them on. I believe this is where John Kerry missed opportunities to show he can take one the right wing. When he was being swift boated, his wife was being attacked, and when he was being unfairly attacked, he did not show much willingness to stand-up and strike back.

Finally, please help me understand something, I do recall Barack addressing the right-wing media in Tennessee about leaving his wife alone. I just want to ask, why are so many Hillary supporters defending the actions the Tennessee Republicans have taken? I watched the interview and not one time did Barack say the Clinton supporters need to lay off of his wife, but the Republicans should. Just a question I would like some clarity on. Please help me understand this a little better?

representative of what we are...so she is fair game...That's the life in politics...

against distortion and smears. Or do you only have a problem with distortions or smears when they're applied to Clinton?

The democrats are doing it now.

are fair game also. He lives and campaigns off her $$$. And she is in the same position as Michelle is so everything she does and says is fair game also. The problem with the Repugs is that they can dish it out, but can't take it. Has Laura ever had one thing said about her that they didn't bitch about and say she was hands off?

Then it's open season.

You can't have it both ways: either it is open season on candidate spouses or it is not. If the Republickers are going after Michelle, I say we go after Cindy as she is much dirtier than Mrs. Obama.

The things she did in the dark should be brought to light!

And it's the GOP doing the attacking, which
is only to be expected.

While I do appreciate Obama's immediate and
forceful countering of the attacks, the record
is clear that she is being attacked for what
she said and we really must expect these things
to happen.

I mean, it's the party of Lee Atwater and Karl
Rove doing the attacking.. with a complicit
corporatewhore media.

Sue

people are acting like he shouldn't have even tried to defend his wife, which...I don't get. What should he have said "yes, they should be attacking her." Of course they are going to attack anything she says, but what do people expect him to say about it? I don't really think that they didn't think "this was coming" , and yes, I think someone from the campaign should have edited her speech better. But is he supposed to say "It's a legitimate issue!" When he said that he could see WHY people were worried about Wright , McCain said "Oooh! Legitimate issue! It's on the table!" But anyways, I posted this yesterday, but it was so strange that I need to post it again. Yesterday, on the Situation Room...Wolf Blitzer actually said ""Coming up later, Obama stands up for his woman!" The fuck? Who wrote the script?

A husband standing up for his wife!

and she can expect a lot of attacks. I think they've attacked every First Lady that we've had in the past 35 years or so, irregardless of party affiliation, with the possible exception of Laura the potted plant. That said, she's going to have to learn to tone down her rhetoric. Some of her problems have been of her own making.

Some of those truly need to be criticized.

Unfortunately, the example she (Laura) has set for young girls as far as lack of having her own life is far more harmful.

spouses ARE part of the game these days, and there's not going to be any sort of "gentleman's agreement" to keep them out of it.

That's why spouses need to be careful not to hand the other side ammunition.

to see Obama fight back.

Obama did. We do know she likes Am. just as we know McCain did not mean we should be fighting in Iraq for 100 years but he may mean we would do like we did in Germany. Frankly I think we should get out of all these countries. McCain's wife and Bill need to show where they got their money and how they are spending it also.

but what he did was manage to be seen as noble in defense of his wife, and paint the GOP as the scumbag dirty tricksters they are, and I think people he is trying to woo in the middle will appreciate it a whole lot more than if he left it unanswered. The people who liked the attacks were never voting for him anyway.

Technically she's not off limits, but that doesn't mean that it will help the GOP. Many things are within the limits of politics but that doesn't mean they're less tasteless. They always do this to everyone involved in our candidates lives, and the Democratic candidates tend to stay away from that, which I agree with because it's so not classy. So maybe a 527 can do an expose on her taxes and drug addictions if they insist on painting Michelle unpatriotic.

What she can't fight for herself?

:sarcasm:

Actually, I was tickled by the kind of startled look she gave when Obama said to lay off her. It was really cute.

lots of push-back from herself and Sen. Obama everytime someone starts flapping their lips about her.

Mrs. Obama is a very smart woman and I wouldn't put starting a future political career of her own in the realm of impossiblity. But, her "Hillarization" needs to be nipped in the bud. Now!

The slander of her image should not go unchallenged. The distortion of her words should not be allowed to stand. This shouldn't have been allowed to happen to Sen./Mrs. Clinton and it should be stopped NOW with Mrs. Obama.

between the GOP, and the Democrats when it comes to trashing and bashing, tit for tat, and obscuring the truth. I don't know if those Democrats who love to hate the Obama family will move on after the nomination. I hope so, but the level of vitriol leaves me doubtful. Michelle will continue to be ripped, in the same way she has up to this point. The focus will just shift on who is doing the ripping. Instead of it being Dems throwing knives it will be perceived to be republicans.

If an Obama or party operative went after Cindy McCain for her many issues, the outcry from the MSM would be deafening. Remember when the Bush twins campaigned for W and a few people made comments about their drunkenness, etc, and the MSM came down hard on them. Somehow I don't see a rethug attack on Michelle being met with the same animous.

If you're going to speak on his behalf, you're not off limits.

But, hey, these are Republicans we're talking about.

against a candidate's wife before? That is what I find ethically questionable. If she is campaigning for her husband then her words are fair game for debate. I don't like the sophomoric way the GOP tries to spin her words. But, of course, I don't like most of the sophomoric crap they pull in an election anyway.

LET THEM try to run on that meaningless bullshit, and watch it swing around and bite them right on the ass.

Obama is handling it exactly right. Fight back and call them on it.

She will continue to say and do things that some may find controversial. So long as that happens, she will be a target of the right-wing, no matter what Obama says.

Mostly by distorting things that she has said to make her appear contoversial, when she is not.

She is actually an excellent public speaker, and probably would be a pretty good candidate in her own right.

At making her a controversial figure? I think so.

She won't give them the material, and hasn't given them the material.

All that has happened is extreme spin on minor statements she has made that were willfully taken out of context.

Michelle is not running for office and she's not a politician. Even politicians say things everyday that can be easily twisted and Gawd knows the Pukes would twist their own grandmas for fun and games.

What she says regarding Obama's stand on issues, or about how she plans to interject herself into American life as first Lady, that's fair game. But Michelle as a person is only fair game if the D's plan to make use of her talents as an official in the White House.

Now, having said all that, saying publicly anything that can be so easily twisted to say she's never been proud of her country before was a serious gift to the Rovians. Even if it's true it's a mistake to say such a thing when hubby wants to be POTUS.

:thumbsdown:

is truly off limits and can live their lives in, if not obscurity, at least peace. Look at the spouses of foreign prime ministers and presidents. Other than in France, do we have any idea even who the hell they are or what they look like? No.
But here, we are trying to elect a Royal Family (what about the Revolution?????) so every presidential candidate has to parade his (so far) spouse out for all to see and critique. For that reason, I can;t wait until we finally grow up enough to elect a woman President (and no I don't necessarily mean clinton)- maybe that way the spouse will say "Enough is enough" and actually get away with it.

So yeah, Michelle Obama is not running for President, so she should be off limits.

then she needs to be held accountable.

Personal attacks are something else, as is lying and spinning what she says.

trashing Michelle, as far as I'm concerned old Cindy and her drug abusing, criminal past is fair game.

If you attack her unfairly--LOOK OUT!!! They know damn well what she was trying to say--that the involvement and inspiration of new people made her REALLY proud. They knew damn well that she was not saying she had never been proud of her country.

So yeah, she's fair game, but if criticisms are unfair--they should lay off!