Jack Cafferty: "My crush on Michelle Obama"

[camera obscura]

I think I am developing a crush on America's first lady. Michelle Obama is more compelling than her husband. He's good, but she's utterly fascinating.

Mrs. Obama has blown away the stale air in a White House musty from eight years of the Bushes. It's like the sun came out and a fresh spring breeze began wafting through the open windows.

It's the people's house, and Michelle Obama totally gets it. So much so that she has taken to inviting people in from the streets to see her home. Nice touch -- one completely lacking in her recent predecessors.

Watch her when she visits a local school and you see the warmth and affection she instantly triggers in people. Kids are pretty much totally honest with very good BS-detectors. If they sense you're a phony, forget it. But around the first lady, they want to hug her and laugh with her and tell her stories.

You can see the same qualities these kids recognize in her daughters. She is the consummate mother as evidenced by the poised, polite smiling children she and her husband are raising. I have four daughters, and trust me -- they don't turn out like the Obama children without devoted parents.

New to the Washington neighborhood, Michelle Obama has taken it upon herself to go around and introduce herself to the people in the various agencies of government. When's the last time a first lady did that? I don't ever remember it before. And during her visits she listens rather than lectures. And people respond to her.

She was raised on the south side of Chicago by blue-collar parents. She went to Princeton University, and Harvard Law School. But in many ways she's still a kid from the south side of Chicago, and that's what makes her special. She knows exactly who she is.

The Obamas bring a humanity and humility to their tasks which sets them far apart from the run-of-the mill phonies who populate Washington. It's exactly what the doctor ordered for this wounded nation.

More: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/03/cafferty.first.lady/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

[Captain Hilts]

1. I agree. 'First ladies' - what a dreadful term - are less politically sanitized ...

And I agree about the Southside attidue. I like it too.

[alsame]

2. Wow. Thanks for posting, This was very, very nice to read. eom

[JimGinPA]

3. I Like Jack Cafferty

K&R

[ej510]

4. Jack Cafferty gives it to you straight whether you agree with him or not. I agree with him 95% of

the time.

[Jennicut]

5. Aww, what a nice article. Jack is about the only sane person left on CNN.

[alsame]

6. Yes, Jack, Fareed Zakaria and DL Hughley. All the others are

worthless.

[uponit7771]

8. AMEN!!! They don't cut Obama needless breaks but they sound like they have common sense

[alsame]

9. And DL is primarily a comedian, but he's a better journalist than

most of the professional 'journalists' on CNN!

[Jennicut]

12. Fareed is tops too. Gergen is actually a decent man on occasion.

[alsame]

16. Yes, I forgot about him. He can be quite objective and insightful at times.

[Captain Hilts]

10. He's my kind of old crank. He said his wife could beat up Steph Miller. Funny! nt

[uponit7771]

7. Cafferty would make some dem president a great press sec

[Cha]

11. And, this is what it's all

about..The People's House actually being that. Didn't bushes close their house for awhile to the public?

[polichick]

13. Beautifully said. :)

[Clio the Leo]

14. And Jack doesn't like ANYBODY .... so this is a major compliment.

Thanks Jack.

[vaberella]

15. I had this fantastical hope that Cafferty might host Meet the Press.

He would have been great.

[globalvillage]

17. Cafferty tells the truth as he sees it.

Not too many of those on TV. I don't always agree, but I do respect him.
His crush on Mrs. Obama is much cuter than Tweety's crush on Limbaugh and Delay.