Marie Obama Continues Wowing The Heartland

Selfish?

Barbara Walters, ABC News: "Mrs. Obama, you've recently said something that I thought was very interesting for other women to hear. You said 'you put your own self highest on your priority list.' That sounds selfish?"

Michelle Obama: "No, no, it's practical. It's something that I found I needed to do for quite some time, even before the presidency. And I found it other women, in similar situated balancing career family, trying to do it all and a lot of times we just slip pretty low on our own priority list because we're so busy caring for everyone else. And one of the things that I want to model for my girls is investing in themselves as much as they invest in others."

Perhaps Michelle Obama isn't average. But the average person is selfishly oriented by nature, and so should not reinforce that by subscribing to a doctrine -- a considered, intellectualized manifesto -- of putting oneself first.

That tends to happen naturally. That's why most creeds stress the opposite -- Do for others; put your family first. Because the conscious effort to be selfless is a necessary check for the natural, unconscious, unthinking impulse to put the self first.

But there's a whole strain of feminist thought that declares that women do too much already for their children and husbands, and must consciously force themselves to prioritize their own needs. Not being a woman or a mother, I don't know if there's truth, and that consciously pushing to be more self-oriented is necessary or useful.

All I know is that given that Marie seems to think nothing of His 'n Her private jet flights to Hawaii, just to avoid having to spend another dreaded day of drudgery in the national mansion, her "Me First" philosophy is bearing some fruit, at least. So good for her.

Stop the Tape, Stop the Tape: Isn't her husband campaigning on the idea that the super-rich -- such as Barack and Marie Obama -- have to be less self-oriented and do more, more, more for others?

My goodness, that's not yet another "Do as I say not as I do" thing, is it?

And I guess this is... funny or something?

posted by Ace at 02:05 PM

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