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February 04, 2009
Michelle Obama Visits Department of Education in Washington
'I know I said I wouldn't be political but...".........Michelle Obama makes her first speech on educating America
She said her number one priority was to be America’s ‘mom-in-chief’.
But Michelle Obama is drawing comparisons with Britain’s Cherie Blair as it becomes clear she has no intention of being a stay-at-home mother during her husband’s presidency, even if home is the White House.
The new First Lady surprised Washington with a visit to the US Education Department to rally support for the controversial $900billion recovery package that is lumbering through Congress.
It was the first stop in a series of solo speeches planned for key government departments in the coming weeks.
And analysts said it underlined the Ivy League-educated lawyer’s determination to be regarded as more than just a mother to daughters Malia, ten, and seven-year-old Sasha.
Few had expected Mrs Obama, 45, to be so publicly active so soon after moving into the White House.
‘It really does surprise me because I had gotten the opposite impression from those statements about being first mom-in-chief,’ said Myra Gutin, a first lady historian and professor at Rider University in New Jersey.
Mrs Obama's speech espousing the importance of the public schools system also got her into political hot water.
Don't Know Much About History
Stopping first at the Department of Education to thank employees for their service and rally them for the tough work ahead," the Associated Press. While at the Education Department, Mrs. Obama committed this howler:
In thanking the workers, she told them: "I am a product of your work."
"I wouldn't be here if it weren't for the public schools that nurtured me and helped me along," said Mrs. Obama, a Chicago native who attended its public schools as a child.
Michelle Obama was born in January 1964. The Department of Education began operation in May 1980, when Mrs. Obama was a 16-year-old high school junior. Apparently she is unaware that there were public schools before there was a federal Department of Education--though we suppose that's evidence that the department does not bear all the blame for the schools' going downhill.
Critics said she was opening herself up to charges of hypocrisy because her own children recently started attending the exclusive Sidwell Friends private school in the capital that costs almost $30,000 each a year.
And before their father was elected president, the girls both attended the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, where their mother was on the board.
Speaking to education officials on Monday, Mrs Obama said they faced a tough road ahead.
So many of you have been here struggling and pushing for decades and Barack and I want to say "thank you" for what you've done and "thank you" for what you will continue to do,’ she said.
She plugged her husband’s stimulus plan, saying it will help prevent teacher lay-offs and modernise schools.
‘There's a lot of work to do and we're going to need you,’ she said. ‘The children of this country are counting on all of us.’
She said the visit was the first of many to government departments in the coming weeks and months ‘to say hello, to learn, to listen, to take info back where possible.’
Wild Thing's comment.......
So it begins LOL . They kept her silent toward the end of the campaign. They won't keep her silent now.
Posted by Wild Thing at February 4, 2009 04:44 AM
Comments
Amazing how they tout public education but send their own kids to private schools; Clinton's did that too.
Posted by: BobF at February 4, 2009 07:38 AM
In thanking the workers, she told them: "I am a product of your work."
We are truly fucked!
Posted by: cuchieddie at February 4, 2009 10:27 AM
Keep talking Michelle.
Posted by: TomR at February 4, 2009 11:41 AM
Good Point Bob, they all send their kids to Private School. The Private Schools is only for the elites, like the obama's the rest of us slobs are to the slaughterhouse in the chaos called public education. Where learning anything is optional and that is dependant on the agenda.
Posted by: Mark at February 4, 2009 04:58 PM
Michelle Obama like her husband, Barack Obama, suffers from diarrhea of the mouth. They both like to hear themselves talk and talk and talk and talk.... and can't STFU.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/141/399337502_7f120ffa0e.jpg
http://wizbangblog.com/images/stfu.jpg
Posted by: Les at February 4, 2009 06:31 PM
