{"id":189025,"date":"2010-01-16T21:48:21","date_gmt":"2010-01-17T02:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chicagopressrelease.com\/?p=10472"},"modified":"2010-01-16T21:48:21","modified_gmt":"2010-01-17T02:48:21","slug":"first-lady%e2%80%99s-first-year-how%e2%80%99d-she-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/189025","title":{"rendered":"First Lady\u2019s first year: How\u2019d she do?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"The Tribune asked some movers and shakers to give their impressions of Michelle Obama’s<\/a> first year as the nation’s first lady. Here are excerpts:<\/p>\n

Letitia Baldrige<\/em>, social secretary for first lady Jacqueline Kennedy:<\/p>\n

“I think she’s done a terrific job. Coming in as the first this and the first that, she’s had any number of mountains to climb, and she’s climbed every one.<\/p>\n

“There have been some fashion errors. Some of the skirts that she mixes with printed tops have been less than exciting, in my opinion. But if that’s all we can say negatively, she’s doing terribly well.” <\/span><\/p>\n

Is she the “new Jackie”?: <\/em>“That’s too facile a comparison. They’re two totally different women in totally different times. Jackie tried to make the White House beautiful and fix it up and this first lady has other agendas: the education of children, healthy eating, obesity<\/a> — and all of those things weren’t even on Jackie’s mind at all.”<\/p>\n

Michelle Obama’s biceps: <\/em>“I think they’re wonderful and that she shows them off to her advantage. We all should be so lucky. Any time I pass a mirror and look at my arms, I flinch.”<\/p>\n

Mary Matalin,<\/em> conservative commentator and publisher:<\/em><\/p>\n

“I think she just exudes what people are looking for in this era: She is a woman who knows what’s in her heart and she’s really comfortable with who she is and she’s cognizant of her position and her responsibility and her obligations, but she’s going to take care of her kids and take care of herself.<\/p>\n

“She’s compelling in ways I find more appealing than her husband, and I’m not talking about politics or ideology.”<\/p>\n

Penny Pritzker<\/em> , Chicago business executive, member of President Barack Obama’s Economic Advisory Recovery Board:<\/em><\/p>\n

“She’s authentic, accessible and is as comfortable greeting the queen of England as she is serving food to the homeless. And she’s an inspiration. She embodies the American dream: a girl from the South Side of Chicago who through hard work and education becomes a lawyer, a hospital vice president and first lady.”<\/p>\n

Nancy Beck Young<\/em> , history professor, University of Houston:<\/em><\/p>\n

“There’s a paradox because she’s breaking so many barriers while she’s advocating a pretty traditional agenda. Her moderation is part of the larger Obama strategy to keep a centrist coalition together.<\/p>\n

“If she was talking about unwed mothers, if she was talking about premarital sex, if she was talking about drug use — and not in the Nancy Reagan ‘Just-say-no’ kind of way — she would come off as off-putting for too many Americans, I fear.<\/p>\n

“It’s a calculated political choice, and it’s a smart choice, to take on safe, antiseptic causes.”<\/p>\n

Lewis Gould, <\/em> editor of “American First Ladies: Their Lives and Their Legacy”:<\/em><\/p>\n

“As a political surrogate, she’s very important. The wife of the president is the only person around the president who doesn’t have another agenda, from (chief of staff) Rahm Emanuel down.<\/p>\n

“She may want something, but her first interest is in the president, and as a sustaining force, and emotional buttress, the first lady is crucial. The role of first lady is usually more complex and interesting than what the public appearance is. She has a certain star quality that neither Laura Bush nor Barbara Bush had. Hillary Clinton had a star quality, the kind that was polarizing.”<\/p>\n

Avril Graham, <\/em> executive fashion and beauty editor, Harper’s Bazaar:<\/em><\/p>\n

“She keeps her wardrobe fresh, young and unimposing in many ways. For many first ladies, it was the requisite boxy, buttoned-up suit of old. She marches to a different beat. She mixes American, French, Italian designers and high and low price points in her wardrobe choices. She understands dressing down as well as dressing up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read the original article from WGN Radio Chicago<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tribune asked some movers and shakers to give their impressions of Michelle Obama’s first year as the nation’s first lady. Here are excerpts: Letitia Baldrige, social secretary for first lady Jacqueline Kennedy: “I think she’s done a terrific job. Coming in as the first this and the first that, she’s had any number of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189025\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}