I'm so excited that Michelle braving our god-awful weather to come here today. She's at a good place, the Overture Center in downtown. I've only seen her on TV, and liked her there. But there's nothing like seeing someone in person.
I wanted to elaborate on some of the ideas I started with the first entry. I think it's wonderful for black middle class women to have someone to relate to in the public arena. I mean after Don Imus's terrible remarks, it's great to see an African-American woman commanding all this respect. She is the American dream. She went to Princeton and Harvard. They like her so much at her job that they promoted her to Vice President for Community and External Affairs with a pay bump to $320,000. You just know that when she's First Lady she's not going to just do garden parties and teas, she'll be involved with policy. She's too bright and strong not to want to do something. She started as Barack's mentor and has so much imput in the campaign that I don't see her taking on some dull traditional First Lady role. I mean she didn't agree to him running until he agreed to give up smoking.
The only thing I worry about (because the momentum is so on their side) is this Rezko thing coming up in the beginning of March. I'm not quite sure what the deal is, something about the Obamas paying less than market value for their $1.6 million home. I know Obama gave back the money Rezko raised, but it is Patrick Fitzgerald prosecuting and he brough down all those Republicans in Illinois. Also, Rezko is such a slum landlord. When you see pictures of the buildings he managed or didn't manage-it's really sad. I'm not clear on why Obama, who knew Rezko for so long, didn't know about these terrible buildings and do something about them. Isn't good low-income housing one of the main goals of an organizer from the South-side of Chicago? Maybe Michelle will clear this up for me this afternoon because I don't want anything stopping her from being the incredible First Lady I know she will be.