Real Clear Politics
12/23/2011
First lady Michelle Obama tells Barbara Walters in a 20/20 special that it is “practical” for her to put her self highest on her priority list.
Obama says she found her self slipping “pretty low” on her own priority list because she was “so busy caring for everyone else.”
Michelle Obama says she spends time with girlfriends and going out in her attempt to put herself higher on her priority list. Transcript below.
Barbara Walters, ABC News: “Mrs. Obama, you’ve recently said something that I thought was very interesting for other women to hear. You said ‘you put your own self highest on your priority list.’ That sounds selfish?”
Michelle Obama: “No, no, it’s practical. It’s something that I found I needed to do for quite some time, even before the presidency. And I found it other women, in similar situated balancing career family, trying to do it all and a lot of times we just slip pretty low on our own priority list because we’re so busy caring for everyone else. And one of the things that I want to model for my girls is investing in themselves as much as they invest in others.”
Walters: “So what do you do?”
Obama: “Make sure I get my exercise in so I work out as much as he works out.”
Walters: “I hear more.”
Obama: “I do now. He’s been busier. Spending time with girlfriends. Going out. You know, pulling in people in my life who give me strength and joy.”
Watch the video at Real Clear Politics.
MORE: Obama: “I Think There’s A Laziness In Me”
MORE: Barack Has No Pet Peeves Of First Lady; Michelle: “My List Is Too Long”
H/T Kevin Jackson, The Blacksphere on Facebook
Related: More thoughts about the President’s comments about his “laziness” from the Washington Examiner.
- Barack Obama ‘wanted trip to Camp David, Maryland’
- But his wife ‘didn’t want to disappoint their daughters’
- ‘Had a pre-holiday shopping spree’: National Enquirer
- President flying separately on Friday afternoon…
Update 2: Marie Obama Continues Wowing The Heartland
…there’s a whole strain of feminist thought that declares that women do too much already for their children and husbands, and must consciously force themselves to prioritize their own needs. Not being a woman or a mother, I don’t know if there’s truth, and that consciously pushing to be more self-oriented is necessary or useful.
All I know is that given that Marie seems to think nothing of His ‘n Her private jet flights to Hawaii, just to avoid having to spend another dreaded day of drudgery in the national mansion, her “Me First” philosophy is bearing some fruit, at least. So good for her.
Stop the Tape, Stop the Tape: Isn’t her husband campaigning on the idea that the super-rich — such as Barack and Marie Obama — have to be less self-oriented and do more, more, more for others?
My goodness, that’s not yet another “Do as I say not as I do” thing, is it?…
