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| Must you be a domestic goddess, Mrs Obama? | Must you be a domestic goddess, Mrs Obama? |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| So, Michelle Obama has found her first lady thing. You know, the thing the little lady (in this case Princeton and Harvard-educated lawyer) gets to occupy herself with while her husband runs the country. For her, it's vegetables. She is currently doing the publicity rounds in the US to promote her first book, about growing them in the White House garden as part of an effort to combat America's addiction to fast food and its consequent obesity epidemic. | So, Michelle Obama has found her first lady thing. You know, the thing the little lady (in this case Princeton and Harvard-educated lawyer) gets to occupy herself with while her husband runs the country. For her, it's vegetables. She is currently doing the publicity rounds in the US to promote her first book, about growing them in the White House garden as part of an effort to combat America's addiction to fast food and its consequent obesity epidemic. |
| First ladies have learned wisely from the famous faux pas by Hillary Clinton (Wellesley, Yale). When she said, "I suppose I could have stayed at home and baked cookies and had teas but what I decided to do was fulfil my profession which I entered before my husband was in public life", she got the metaphorical crap kicked out of her in the press. And Bill was derided for picking such an undomesticated harridan as a life partner. Hillary was then forced to spew out a load of cockamamie rubbish, including her special recipe for chocolate chip cookies and a book about child-rearing, It Takes a Village, to try to re-establish their credentials as a traditional – and therefore electable – couple. | First ladies have learned wisely from the famous faux pas by Hillary Clinton (Wellesley, Yale). When she said, "I suppose I could have stayed at home and baked cookies and had teas but what I decided to do was fulfil my profession which I entered before my husband was in public life", she got the metaphorical crap kicked out of her in the press. And Bill was derided for picking such an undomesticated harridan as a life partner. Hillary was then forced to spew out a load of cockamamie rubbish, including her special recipe for chocolate chip cookies and a book about child-rearing, It Takes a Village, to try to re-establish their credentials as a traditional – and therefore electable – couple. |
| Now leaders' wives try not to step out of the domestic sphere. Sam Cam is most often photographed in the kitchen – of the flat at No 10, and before that in her Notting Hill home. And, of course, when the Obamas came to visit the Camerons and they hosted a barbecue at Downing Street for men and women in the military, the boys took centre stage, doing manly things with meat and flame while the women wielded salad tongs in the wings. | Now leaders' wives try not to step out of the domestic sphere. Sam Cam is most often photographed in the kitchen – of the flat at No 10, and before that in her Notting Hill home. And, of course, when the Obamas came to visit the Camerons and they hosted a barbecue at Downing Street for men and women in the military, the boys took centre stage, doing manly things with meat and flame while the women wielded salad tongs in the wings. |
| Still, things could be worse. Jackie Kennedy was relegated to pillbox hat-wearing and ignoring the amount of time JFK spent locked in the Oval Office with Marilyn Monroe. Mesdames Chirac and Mitterrand's main role was remaining dignified in front of their husbands' publicly acknowledged mistresses. Audrey Callaghan found an outlet in the writing of poetry, which is a fate no one should be forced to suffer. And Norma Major penned books about Dame Joan Sutherland. So, keep buffing those broad beans, Mrs Obama, instead of frightening the electorate with your marriage of equals! You know it makes sense. | Still, things could be worse. Jackie Kennedy was relegated to pillbox hat-wearing and ignoring the amount of time JFK spent locked in the Oval Office with Marilyn Monroe. Mesdames Chirac and Mitterrand's main role was remaining dignified in front of their husbands' publicly acknowledged mistresses. Audrey Callaghan found an outlet in the writing of poetry, which is a fate no one should be forced to suffer. And Norma Major penned books about Dame Joan Sutherland. So, keep buffing those broad beans, Mrs Obama, instead of frightening the electorate with your marriage of equals! You know it makes sense. |
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