La Belle Michelle

A Black Laura Petrie? -- Picture captured by blogSpotter

by blogSpotter
I watched Michelle Obama's speech, given on the first night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention. I must give "props" where they're due -- she is an attractive, photogenic woman. She has a vague resemblance to Laura Petrie of television fame -- albeit a black one. Michelle would be described as "high yellow" in the black community -- a woman with light mocha skin and straight, styled hair. She wore a simple teal dress and very little jewelry -- very ladylike and nothing the least bit provocative. Everything in baby steps, I guess -- America probably isn't ready for a Wanda Sykes or a Whoopie Goldberg as First Lady. Both Obama and Michelle look too much like models to me, which makes me ponder how much intellectual weight they carry. I know they went to Ivy League schools, but a school pedigree doesn't automatically translate to gravitas -- George W Bush went to Harvard.

Michelle was extremely poised and well-spoken at the podium. Her speech centered mostly on family values and cherished memories. She must have taken some heat for earlier remarks dissing America, because in this speech she talked at some length about what opportunities abounded in the good ol' U.S. of A. Some of Hillary's "pumas" were dismissive of Michelle's talk -- it was all family with no hint of feminism. I think Michelle probably stuck to the necessary talking points. The Obamas have to look like Main Street Americans, somebody you might run into at the corner McDonald's. They're not, but that's neither here nor there. Much like Julia, one of America's first black TV icons not cast as a maid or butler, the Obamas have to be pleasingly bland, partly white and all-digestible. Ex-nay on the feminism or militancy in any form.

Coming away from it, I have to say I'm unimpressed for other reasons. Barrack himself comes across as smug and superficial in the extreme. I'm thinking of the TV show, Mad About You, where I liked every character but the main one played by the somewhat obnoxious Paul Reiser. Lose that guy and you have a show. Odd that my other example is the Cosby Show, which featured the successful, adorable Huxtable family. They didn't seem real to me (or even to other blacks -- Flip Wilson said at the time, in comparison, that his show was about a black family). The Huxtables were all OK except for the slightly pompous and annoying Bill Cosby. And he was the star of the show. Lose Cosby and you would've had a show.

Lose Barrack and you have a 2008 show. What's that? Barrack is the candidate? I can't have Helen Hunt without Paul Reiser? Damn! OK, I'll probably have to move beyond superficial impressions, much as our Idol-addled public needs to do the same thing. I'll try to get beyond the veneer -- but that will be hard to do if a veneer is all there is. Obama's choice of Joe Biden as veep hasn't really changed the game very much. Biden has been implicated in plagiarism before, and shares a little of Obama's used car salesman essence. Stay tuned to this blog -- I still haven't decided how I'm going to vote.

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