Michelle O.: "Intellectual lightweight"?

So says a writer for the National Review in an absurd blog post

Published August 18, 2009 10:15AM (EDT)

I try to ignore bilious blog-rants, as my doctor says they are no good for my delicate feminine heart, but this one from the National Review Online is so inane as to inspire laughter. OK, so it's the kind of panicked laughter inspired by the sudden recognition of the profound madness in the world -- but it's laughter, nonetheless. Blogger Benjamin Zycher holds forth on the first lady:

Michelle Obama, the product of lifelong affirmative-action coddling, is an intellectual lightweight who fancies herself a serious thinker. Just read her Princeton senior thesis, an intermittently coherent stream-of-consciousness pile of leftist jargon, campus pseudo-seriousness, and racial-identity babble. Can there be any doubt that the Princeton administrators accepted it only because of her skin color?

See what I mean -- so ridiculous you could laugh until you cry? As my fellow Broadsheeter Kate Harding wrote in an e-mail: "Now, I haven't read the thesis, so I can't speak to its quality, but gee, I hope that when I'm 45 and insanely accomplished, people judge me based on something I wrote IN COLLEGE."

Adding ignorance to absurdity, Zycher goes on to criticize Mrs. Obama for failing to make any serious contributions to the current debate over healthcare. Clearly, he doesn't remember what happened the last time a first lady attempted to toss her hat into the healthcare ring -- even though we had a million and one reminders during Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

Seeing as Zycher isn't privileged with the first lady's favored skin color, I'm going to have to demand a rewrite of his blog post.


By Tracy Clark-Flory

MORE FROM Tracy Clark-Flory


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Broadsheet Love And Sex