Originally posted at American Thinker.
Recycling her tried-and-true American dream story, Michelle Obama gave Chinese schoolchildren the same stump speech she delivers everywhere she goes, from Ireland to Chicago. The FLOTUS has used her hard-knock life tale to justify more vacations for herself than her husband has golf balls.
The problem is that the story is exaggerated, and even if it weren’t, to complain about struggling as a child in a free country as opposed to a struggling as a child in a country where the annual average family income is $10,220 today, which is similar to what it was in 1972 in the U.S. when six-year-old Michelle Obama was supposedly struggling, proves the woman is oblivious.
As if being a pop artist or a professional basketball star worth $130 million is something Chinese children could aspire to, Michelle pointed to the difficult upbringings of African-Americans such as LeBron James and singer Janelle Monáe.
Then, it was on to the CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, who Mrs. Obama also used as an example. The problem with mentioning Howard is that the Chinese press and maybe even Chinese government has “accused [Starbucks] of overcharging … “outrageous’ prices compared to those paid by consumers in the U.S. and elsewhere.”
From there, Michelle went on to her usual disingenuous “raised by a single mother who sometimes struggled to afford food for their family” story about chubby little Barry, who, quite frankly, looked as if he never missed a meal.
The FLOTUS then insisted on talking up the value of education to Chinese students who rank #1 in the world in math, reading and science.
Notwithstanding that Obama likely did worse on his SAT exams than alleged dolt G.W. Bush, and not mentioning the fact that no one has ever seen any of Obama’s college records, Michelle continued on with “But like me, this guy got scholarships and loans to attend universities.”
Unlike the U.S. where household debt is 136% of earnings, in China that debt hovers around 17%. If federal borrowing is factored into that equation, the “United States number increases an additional $109,792 per household, to $224,303 per household or 266% of average household income.”
As Shelley prattled on, Chinese high school students had to be wondering why the tall lady from America, the country that owes China $1.3 trillion, is encouraging them to borrow money for student loans.
Leaving out community organizing, Michelle then told of her husband’s personal struggle to become a lawyer – though currently without a law license – and a “professor” who was more accurately referred to by the University of Chicago as a part-time, non-tenured senior lecturer.
From the tale of professor Barack, Michelle went straight to a spiel on Barack’s (brief) time as state senator, where he often voted “present” – a sign of things to come. Then Barack became a U.S. senator, where his über-liberal voting record belied the fake moderate persona he successfully passed off in 2008. And finally, Michelle finished up with president, where Mr. Obama has done a bang-up job indebting America to the very children Mrs. Obama was lecturing.
Michelle went on to say that LeBron, Janelle, Howard, and Barry’s stellar accomplishments “are the stories of so many Americans, and of America itself.”
Omitting the recent-added “who you love” part, Michelle said, “because in America, we believe that no matter where you live or how much money your parents have, or what race or religion or ethnicity you are, if you work hard and believe in yourself, then you should have a chance to succeed.”
For college grads in China jobs are scarce, but if Michelle was referring to the U.S., where jobs are nonexistent, those words may have been true prior to 2008, but since then, “if you work hard and believe in yourself,” you still probably won’t succeed. And if you happen to beat insurmountable odds, and build something on your own, you’ll be demonized and robbed blind by the Extortionist and his sidekick government.
Then the FLOTUS told children trapped in the tentacles of communism that “We also believe that everyone is equal, and that we all have the right to say what we think and worship as we choose, even when others don’t like what we say or don’t always agree with what we believe.”
Has Mrs. Obama ever heard about the Tiananmen Square massacre or thought about all the political and religious prisoners held captive in China? As for back home, those lofty sentiments wouldn’t fly with the unborn, the Catholic Church, the Tea Party, or anyone who dares call an assertive female “bossy.”
Clearly, Michelle was also unaware that in 1988, three years after she handed in her racist diatribe/Princeton senior thesis, “a violent, 300-strong mob broke into an African students’ dormitory at Nanjing University …while chanting ‘down with the black devils.’”
In an Asian Scientist article entitled “Who’s The Fairest of Them All?” David Tan (no, really) pointed out that “All across Asia fair skin is highly prized… a fair complexion is considered the epitome of beauty.” With cultural sensitivities in mind, maybe Mrs. Obama should have steered clear of race, and just concentrated on the nutritional deficit associated with having white rice as a staple.
Instead, Michelle chose to bring up America’s racist past, saying, “Many decades ago, there were actually laws in America that allowed discrimination against black people like me, who are a minority in the United States.”
Did the woman who arrived on Air Force One wearing a $3,000 dress and is staying in an $8,400 per night hotel suite, really feel it was necessary to allege that she was discriminated against?
In fairness, Mrs. Obama did attempt to convey that, “slowly but surely,” America has changed. But not before she told truly downtrodden people who dream of freedoms Michelle has taken for granted her whole ‘oppressed’ life, children whose families barely subsist on $10,000 per year, that in America “living up to these ideals isn’t always easy.”
All in all, a petulant Michelle Obama complaining about anything to utterly subjugated, poverty-stricken children in communist China can be likened to crying over a hangnail in a cancer ward.
