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A Target-Rich Profile of Michelle Obama
Jim Geraghty, National Review

You get the feeling Michelle Obama is never going to be boring to cover. (See here, here, here and here.) Hot Air and JammieWearingFool already noted the most eye-opening comment from Mrs. Obama...

Obama begins with a broad assessment of life in America in 2008, and life is not good: we're a divided country, we're a country that is "just downright mean," we are "guided by fear," we're a nation of cynics, sloths, and complacents. "We have become a nation of struggling folks who are barely making it every day," she said, as heads bobbed in the pews. "Folks are just jammed up, and it's gotten worse over my lifetime. And, doggone it, I'm young. Forty-four!"

... but there's a lot more where that came from, a New Yorker profile that aims to be flattering . . .

Much, much more at the link. One of Mr. Geraghty's readers responded in an e-mail:

Doesn't she just strike you as an unreasonably angry person? I mean, it's not like the things she's complaining about are endemic to people who have had to endure a lifetime of discrimination - she's complaining about the things you have to deal with when you grow up! ... We rent an apartment, have a dog, and we have little issues like the ones that she's complaining about - the toilet's gets clogged up, the deadbolt on our apartment broke last night, the car needs to be brought in for inspection, we get home late from work and haven't gone shopping and don't have anything just there and ready for dinner, we have to walk the dog, get his shots. And we expect more stuff like that - and more serious stuff too - when we have kids someday.

But... that's life! I can hear my mother... saying "That's the responsibility of being the adult." My grandfather (who was epileptic for the last 63 years of his life) used to talk about how when life gave you problems - big and small - all you could do was hang on to the rungs of the ladder until you could find your footing again, and then you just keep going forward. Mrs. Obama could profit from such advice.

I suppose I would be much more understanding of Mrs. Obama if she was complaining about opportunities denied to her because of her race, or because her socio-economic background made things incredibly difficult on her. But she's had an amazing sounding life. Married to a handsome, successful, seemingly really good man, beautiful children, great jobs, and she is in the driver's seat to be the First Lady of the United States. And she's complaining that life's really hard because there's high fructose corn syrup in everything she tries to buy her kid when she's getting toilet paper at Target?

This is dead spot on. What Mrs. Obama is complaining about as the crushing burden of American life are, more or less, the logistical problems of affluence. They're also all problems that she and her husband can solve by allocating or re-allocating their personal resources. If she doesn't want her children consuming high-fructose corn syrup, the Obamas can get all their groceries at Trader Joes. If she doesn't have time enough to spend with the family, she can quit her day job and be a full-time mom--they can probably maintain their lifestyle just fine on one income.

Now, far be it from me to tell the Obamas how to live their lives, or what they should value or not value. The point is, Mrs. O seems not to appreciate the concept of opportunity cost. If you want to be a power couple with one spouse in national politics and the other as a senior executive at a major nonprofit, that means you're both going to be busy most days and well into the night, and you're not going to have a lot of free time.

Here's the deal, Michelle: Everything has an opportunity cost. Instead of obsessing over the opportunity costs you face, you might try being a little more grateful for the opportunities you have. Bet you'd be happier if you did.
Posted by: Mike 2008-03-05
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=232066