It only matters who said the words: wife Michelle Obama or candidate John McCain

Michelle Obama on the campaign trail in 2008

The media tend to interpret words and news the way it wants to. In this presidential campaign statements made by Michelle Obama and John McCain are either stated in full or heavily edited to fit into sound bites. Noticeably, if the candidate is someone the media likes the news is favorable. If the media are unhappy with a candidate, and rooting for his or her opponent, every word uttered on the campaign trail is taken out of context.

    

Not to my surprise I watched the media preoccupation with Michelle Obama. It inhaled her every word and gesture. Cindy McCain, also campaigning for her husband, got a free ride. She is rich, a mother, expensively dressed and White. Michelle is educated, a lawyer, a working wife and mother and Black.

      
I went on the Internet to read about other political wives that campaigned for and with their husbands. Hillary Clinton made it known early on that she was not going to bake cookies and serve tea in the White House. That statement started angry tongues wagging in Washington. How dare she does not act like a cookie baking homemaker and tea server! The media went into a frenzy. 

When she refused leave President Bill Clinton after his adultery was exposed, Hillary locked the door and threw away the key! White women were ballistic and condemning. Hillary should have walked out on Clinton! Hillary stood her ground. This was her cheating husband; her game and she knew how to play it.

Women were angry that Hillary stood by her man, Bill.  A few of the political wives who readily jumped on Hillary Clinton’s back later found themselves in the same situation. What did they do? They stood by their cheating husbands, all elected politicians! They even stood by them when they confessed their sins and apologized at press conferences. Muddy snow is not clean! 

    

On Friday while looking at MSNBC I watched Dan Abrahams and a panel of four discuss a statement made by McCain on Sean Hannity's, March 13, 2008, Fox news. 

    

I did not see the statement hawked on TV, in newspapers, or conservative talk radio. I found that odd  because these outlets repeated Michelle Obama’s words at nauseam, painting her as an angry Black woman, who has a deep-seated grudge and hatred for America. The same media are blaming her in advance, in the event Barack Obama is defeated by McCain in November. The media and pundits are jaw jacking overtime, desperate to assure voters that Obama's loss to McCain is inevitable. After all, McCain is a Vietnam hero. He should automatically receive more votes than Obama, who has never served in the armed forces.

    

Michelle Obama said in February 2008: “What we’ve seen over this past year is that hope is making a comeback, and not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for a change, and I’ve been desperate to see our country moving in that direction, and not just feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment. For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country".

    

Discussing McCain's capture as a POW, Sean Hannity, asked McCain, “What does that do to a person to spend that much time in solitary confinement?”

Hannity had actually written off McCain's candidacy. Frankly, they did not like him. They talked more against him than for him. When McCain left the other Republican candidates in the dust, the GOP had no choice but the accept that he would get the nomination. Some Republicans publicly admitted that they would have to "hold my nose" to vote for McCain. 

Conservative talkers on radio had nothing good to say about McCain. On the other hand, they had wet dreams about Sarah Palin. They wanted her without McCain.

    

Here is McCain's statement, compared to Michelle Obama's statement: “I think it makes you a better person. Obviously it makes you love America. I really didn’t love America until I was deprived of her company. But probably the most important thing about it, Sean, is that I was privileged to have the opportunity to be in the company of heroes.” 

The media and pundits praised McCain statement. Attacks on Michelle Obama rolled on.

    

Abraham said: “He used a similar phrase about not loving America until he was deprived repeatedly on the trail in his 1999 campaign. I said it last night and I’ll say it again, I think McCain’s comments are eloquent, but why is the right wing and the media in particular, obsessed over Michelle Obama’s comments and basically ignoring McCain? Fox news does not have that video clip online, and get this, any reference to it is now gone from the transcript on foxnews.com.”

    

Two of the panelists agreed with Abraham’s assessment. The other two said what McCain stated was not comparable to Michelle Obama. One of the four, a female, said she is a conservative who does not want to see Barack Obama win the presidency. She is in absolute agreement with Hannity’s constant attacks on Michelle and Barack Obama and everyone connected to them.

    

 “Listen, we are talk show hosts. We are not reporters. So as talk show hosts we are paid for our opinions,” the conservative said, responding to the question of fairness.

    

She added, “Nobody can question McCain’s patriotism when it comes to this country. And the idea that he certainly appreciates America more, when he lost all the wonderful things about America, all the years he was in captivity--who can argue with that.”

    

The second female  said, “John McCain, because of his singular sacrifice, unlike any other we’ve known with our public servants today, is always seen through the prism of this experience, and so it doesn’t matter if he sat on a bar stool and threw back a six pack and said, ‘I’ve never loved my country', we still probably wouldn’t believe him because he has served his country.’”

    

I guess that means Michelle Obama had better watch her words. McCain can freely urinate in America’s face and tell her it’s raining just because he was shot down by the enemy in Vietnam, a country in which he was attempting to bomb.