Now I didn't really think it was worth that big of a deal. I figured Obama's speech copiers probably didn't transcribe someone else's speech correctly. By the time she got to Madison they found the modifier and now the speech is a little less obnoxious.
For the record, I've always been really proud to be an American.
Her husband doesn't exactly help her out with this explanation.
"What she meant was, this is the first time that she's been proud of the politics of America," he said. "Because she's pretty cynical about the political process, and with good reason, and she's not alone. But she has seen large numbers of people get involved in the process, and she's encouraged." (emphasis added - JW)Was that supposed to be "really, really proud of the politics..."?
Update! I think the last word on this subject should come from Victor Davis Hanson:
The problem is deeper than occasional slips. For most of the last 25 years the Obamas' contacts have been largely confined to universities (Occidental, Columbia, Princeton, Harvard, Chicago) as both students and employees, or to government-sponsored social agencies, or to the incestuous world of Chicago minority politics. These landscapes have proven liberal, sympathetic, and non-confrontational. I doubt very seriously in those environments that the Obamas have had any of their sometimes bewildering statements seriously cross-examined or questioned.
Michelle Obama, true, recites a litany of slights and grievances, but more likely she encountered highly educated white liberal audiences that were not about to cross her or challenge her assertions-a world away from steelworkers in Ohio, the Nascar crowd, the Mexican Americans in LA, the hungry wolves of the D.C. press corps for whom controversy trumps even shared liberal ideology — or Clinton, Inc. for whom power, status, and adulation outweigh everything, including liberal head-nodding, white guilt, and identity politics.
The result is that finally out on the campaign trail both are beginning to enter an arena where most of America does not faint at an Obama rally, but resents deeply a candidate's spouse suggesting that she previously had no pride in her own country, and would think that generous college admission practices, scholarships, and loans were cause more for gratitude rather than resentment.
