This is not what she meant.

BUT...

As I've said in other diaries, some people just didn't want to give President Clinton the benefit of the doubt.

But this was a stupid thing to say.

This video was maliciously edited... She said, "Really proud of my country", but the really wasn't there...

Yes, this could be a "I voted for it before I voted against it" moment... but, the lies and distortions need to be exposed for what they are... lies and distortions!

Manufactured outrage anyone?

What a freakin' joke. What part of  'really' don't people understand?

Right wing pinheads

She said it twice - in Milwaukee in the morning and Madison in the afternoon. And it's not the fancy editing, it's what she said.

I found it disturbing.

I love this crazy country, warts and all. Good diary! I feel like chanting USA!

It was a gaffe, but I understood her meaning differently.(More on that below.)

I'm 40 and a woman of color (Chicana) myself.   Personally, there haven't been many times I've felt proud of my country as a whole.  Of individuals, yes.  But of my country?  

I'd like to say 9-11, but that for me is so tainted by what's been done in its name it makes me shudder.  Our response as a nation was to allow ourselves to become agents of terror ourselves.  I've never gotten over the hooded image of a man being tortured standing on on a box in a prison in Iraq.  I've never felt more ashamed to be American.

As I've spent time abroad the last decade, there have been times I wanted to pretend to be from somewhere else.  

What I heard in Michelle Obama's reply, something that will be lost on the spinners on the Right, was an echo of a poem by Langston Hughes.  It's long, but I'll stick it up here so you can see what you think.

Let America Be America Again   
by Langston Hughes

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free?  Not me?
Surely not me?  The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!

country. So what of it?

Why? What could they tell you about her feeling really proud of the country?  

You know she would have been a child during the Vietnam war.

Hillary Clinton would have been in a dorm room.  Michelle Obama would have been in grammar school on Chicago's south side.

I don't know if it's the first time I've ever felt proud of my country, but it's definitely the most proud that I've felt about my country in a very, very long time. I was somewhat proud at the way people in New York came together after 9/11, but it was quickly overshadowed by Giuliani and the march to war. Clinton: I wasn't proud about Rwanda, or the Iraq embargo, or the orgy of greed, so no, I don't think so. The Reagan-Bush years? No. Jimmy Carter? No. Nixon-Ford, No. Yeah, you know what, I have to agree with Michelle, this is that first time that I've REALLY felt proud of my country.

That's not what she meant, and you know it.  So will the voters.

Here is the quote in its entirety:

"What we have learned over this year is that hope is making a comeback. It is making a comeback. And let me tell you something -- for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment. I've seen people who are hungry to be unified around some basic common issues, and it's made me proud."

The only time I have ever felt anything even close to 'pride' in the last thirty or so years was when Gavin Newsom temporarily legalized gay marriage. Other than that..eh. Pretty miserable last three decades overall. But you know, pride cometh before a fall...

Of course, this whole thing is really on a par with the 'support the troops' argument. Never mind all the tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis they've killed, tortured, and imprisoned...support the troops!! We're all supposed to fall into lockstep and be proud of the country--regardless of the multiple sins it has committed.

to white liberals:

"keep voting for my husband and you won't be racist anymore'

to blacks:
"don't let them off the hook until they nominate barack"

"Hope is making a comeback and, let me tell you, for the first time in my adult life I am really proud of my country. Not just because Barack is doing well, but I think people are hungry for change."

Michelle Obama is 44 years old - I am 47 years old.  I would never make the above statement for the following reason: Although at times I have hoped for more from my country (which is really just all of us), how can you ignore the many instances when any person would feel pride in this country?  Did Michelle Obama feel no pride as Nancy Pelosi was sworn in as the first female Speaker of the House?  How about after the 9/11 attack, while watching first responders go in without any thought to their own safety or future health concerns? Even after the 1st bldg collapsed, firefighters didn't abandon their efforts to help evacuate the 2nd bldg.  Young men signing up to the military directly after 9/11, not knowing what the future would hold, just to defend their country? Average Americans (which, after all, ARE this country) traveling on their own to NOLA to pitch in when they saw the administration wasn't cutting it?  Nothing?

How about "I want people when they look at me not to see the next first lady of the United States," Obama said. "I want people to see what an investment in public education can do."  Apparently it can't do enough to inspire pride in her country.

I have grave concerns about the many foolish comments that Michelle Obama has made since her husband got into the race: "if you can't run your own house, you can't run the white house" - way to go blaming the aggreived party in that marriage, Michelle.  Hopefully Barack won't cheat on you so that one doesn't come back and bite you in the ass.

Of course the right wing radio nuts were all over her last night - but I did hear one quote that stuck with me "Mrs. Clinton, move aside, we have found a new witch".  I have felt for a while that if Obama gets the nomination, Michelle Obama will become the new Hillary, I guess I was right.

I call republican bullshit.  She was talking within the context of "people's hunger for change" if I am not mistaken.  In other words, the number of people who have come out to participate in the democratic process-young voters and older voters who don't usually vote.  if anyone is "proud" of their country, the USA, for the number of people who have typically come out to vote in the past 25 years for primary and general elections, you're not paying attention.  in the last 25 years, less than 1/2 of those even REGISTERED TO VOTE have come out to the polls for GENERAL ELECTIONS.  We're seeing primary voting double in most states.  

I echo her sentiments.  This is the first time as an adult that I have felt really proud of my country.  People are coming together behind a candidate who doesn't talk in negative terms, but instead talks with a sense pride and common purpose in our country morseo than any other candidate I have seen in my lifetime.  

Obama supporters, why can't you just let this be a gaffe?  Is it really necessary to scream "Republican!" every time someone dares suggest that Michelle Obama misspoke?  It's a gaffe and obviously the McCain camp is taking it as such, and they'll spin it no matter what her intention was.

Are you so blind to human vice in your candidate and his wife that you won't even admit a misstep that admittedly has been blown out of proportion but simultaneously was a misstep?  To quote Le Monde, "Barack Obama is but a man."

THis is ridiculous!!!!

I heard the quote on television in its entirety.  I've read the quote and its pretty clear to me that she was talking about the political process and America's lack of participation in it.

I'm calling bullshit!!!

I have to say that although I am very pleased with Barack Obama as a candidate (voted for him in my state's primary and will be  I find that I do not like Michelle Obama at all.  It won't sway my vote, but she does not inspire me one bit.

The MSM and a lot of folks out here on the Web have been so busy talking about "Hillary's Husband Problem," they haven't noticed "Barack's Wife Problem." Barack comes across as an optimistic, upbeat, and (dare I say it) hopeful person. Michelle, on the other hand, seems angry, downbeat and pessimistic. She also doesn't seem to have any trouble distorting the truth, even when she and Barack know better. She was the one who told a black audience that the Clintons had decried the idea of a black man as president as a "fairytale" when even her husband admitted and said publicly that he understood President Clinton to be referring to his position on the Iraq war. Michelle seems to have bought her church's racist message hook, line and sinker. She really does see this contest as a racial thing, even as her husband resists the label. She simply doesn't come across as a nice person. I have always resisted the idea that the personality of a candidate's spouse should have anything to do with that candidate's qualification for office, but, the fact of the matter is that it does matter to a lot of people. One of the things that helped kill John Kerry was the fact that people found his wife off-putting. Just wait until people start taking a closer look at Michelle Obama. The Republicans must be licking their chops.

Gee, with supportive Democrats and progressives like this on mydd, we don't need the winger blogs and the Republicans.  

When all the talking heads are done, this will turn out to have been another "botched joke" episode which, BTW, Hillary Clinton took as an opportunity to stab at Sen. Kerry, a potential presidential rival at the time. I don't think what's happening here is any different than what happened then.  

Michelle has said something similar in many of her stump speeches.  This time it came out with the wrong emphasis and thus ripe for someone with a handy editing penchant to pull out and emphasize.

When Hillary was dissed by the Pentagon, who stood up for her?

That's right.  Sen. Kerry.  The man she dissed.

Because he made the point, and rightfully so, that  no Democrat should be swiftboated or otherwise attacked without support from other Democrats.  And he's repeatedly demonstrated that point here,  here and here.

Here's where you need to spend your anger and outrage.

Get with the program.

We stand up for Dems and progressives.  

There was nothing "progressive" or "inclusive" in that comment. It sounded just like the GOP framed it themselves. The old same old saying that progressives are a bunch of far left anti american cry babies who see nothing good in their nation. I know it's not easy to be black in america and especially for a black women but she still has had a much better life than some white women I know. A Harvard degree, a high paying job and a million dollar home. She should be proud of her accomplishments and the nation that made them possible. They say the truth is said in jest and I spot truth in her statements and it reveals so much about her character.

Somebody call a wahmbulance!  Obama supporters crying about how Mrs. Obama's remarks being spun against the Obamagospel.  Waaaaa!!!!

Well, now, calling Republican BS is pointless.  All those Obama supporters who smugly assured us low-information voters that Obama was vetted based only on some less-than-adulatory stories in some newspapers now see what real vetting will look like.  Too bad the Obamas have left so many little YouTube tidbits lying around for the RWNM.  Hillary supporters would know the feelings of frustration over being misrepresented in the press or being treated unfairly.  However, as one Obama supporter claimed last night, they just don't need us.  

Wow, and to think the RWNM and the MSM are just getting started...

"...it was arrogant, self-gratifying, and repulsive."

Pat Buchanan started this nonsence last night.  Get over it.  It's not going to work.  Not one American (other then politicians) will accept that Michelle was cutting down America.  

You give speech after speech after speech and get your words correct.  I dare you.

I imagine I could have experts look at your diary and find errors.

Give me a break.

She hates America, obviously. She's evil, obviously.

We can read things that aren't all in caps and your points will be just as relevant.

"Really Proud of America" was curious. Has she been to other countries? Many countries in the world are horrible. Does she think people in countries like Indonesia or Kenya have more to be proud of than the United States?

I find it incredibly objectionable that you lump everyone who supports Obama in together. It is so typical of what Clinton supporters at MYDD have become.

Yes it was a stupid comment! Yes we know it was a mistake for her to say. But do you really think THIS is what is going to make me change my mind about who to support?

As for her not being able to hold back her contempt for anything "Not Barack" it kind of sounds like another candidates spouse in this race!

We'll see. Good luck in fighting the Republican smear machine in the general! Everything is going to count and the GOP is going to have a lot of fun with these gaffes. It'll be interesting to see how the unbeatable Obama campaign overcomes the unpatriotic spin. BTW, I think our party has just been punked and we're going to see a lot of Obamacans defect come November. Hope I'm wrong.

Unless you have been a black woman who has had to live in a country that has a long and repulsive history of belittling (and much, much worse) both blacks and women, you have no right to judge someone who, for the first time in her lifetime (adult or otherwise) is seeing either a  black man and a white woman win the Democratic nomination.

Don't tell me she should have been "proud" as blacks were being lynched and racism ran rampant. Don't tell me she should have been proud as MLK Jr. was gunned down in Memphis. Don't tell me she should have been proud as the Worst President Ever sent thousands of our beloved men and women into a war fought for no reason whatsoever.

The comment  may have been politically incorrect, but it was sincere and who can blame her? You?