U'm rather sarcastic myself, and yes it has gotten me in trouble with people who just don't get that kind of humor. I guess that one of the many reasons I love Michelle Obama. Besides the fact she is is a smart intelligent woman who does not play the bimbo game.

Ah gee, so Michell just blows away all those old stereo types of black welfare queens. I happen know several black women very much like Michelle.

Maybe it's my imagination but aren't we seeing more middle class blacks with nice families in advertisements since Obama's been the candidate. It very refreshing to suddenly see all those articulate blacks brought out of the closet and front and center on TV. Where has the media been keeping them all these years. They have been around for decades, in the movies & media we often only see blacks portrayed as criminals, servants and slaves. The professionals blacks we see on TV are mostly sports figures.

Obama and Michelle can finally give the other half of the U.s. intlleigent leaders people to look up too.

The media and the public always look for flaws in the wives of candidates, and unless the wives are dutiful mother's and spouses who stay home with the children and bake cookies, they generally find them. Kerry's wife was too rich and owned some questionable businesses, Edwards wife had no right to put herself through the stress of a campaign while she had cancer (and she also tended to overshadow her husband), Gore's wife had some questionable views on censorship, McCain's wife had drug problems, I don't think I even need to go into Clinton's wife.

Nobody is targeting Michelle Obama because she is a well-dressed black woman. We are used to seeing well-dressed black women. Anybody who grew up watching television in the last 20 years has seen plenty of them and there are even more than a few in the public sphere. They are targeting her because she is the wife of a Presidential candidate. These women are routinely expected to live in their spouse's shadow's so as not to appear threatening or "emasculate" their husband's.

It is your imagination that we're seeing more articulate black people in commercials since the campaign started. Hollywood has been trying to be more diverse in their choice of actor's for quite a while now. Black women can sell dishwasher detergent just as effectively as white women, and the companies get credit for being sensitive to diversity (as long as they stick with black people - Asians and Hispanics need not apply). The only general rule is that the person MUST be middle class and attractive (but not too attractive, unless they're selling cars). No accents, no ethnic or "unusual" hairstyles or clothing, no fat people, no scars or blemishes. You may be noticing more ads now, though, since if anything can be agreed on about this election it is that it has heightened racial sensitivity.

I've never seen a drag queen with hips like those. Michelle is a curvy gal and more power to her. I am so tired of seeing women with stringy arms and legs who look like they are anorexic.

As to Cindy McCain, she looks like a marionette doll, and even though it is shameful that John McCain called her that name, she does wear too much makeup.

See, people have opinions about how potential first ladies look. I know I do. This is because too often it is all we are allowed to see of them. We look to their clothes and hair (T-H Kerry had fabulous hair!) because they are symbols rather than full-fleshed people. A candidate would do well to just hire a Stepford wife.

Well, there is Laura Bush. She almost succeeds.

First Lady has to be one of the worst jobs: No pay, usually no power, lots of critiques, and people freak if you change some parts of the HOUSE.

Obama should be making a speech about gender like the brilliant one he gave on race back in March. Millions of people, especially women, had high hopes for the candidacy of Hillary Clinton. Attention must be paid. And you don't pay attention to it by having your advisers run your wife through the makeover machine, trying to soften her up and pipe her down. Michelle Obama has been one of the most refreshing things about this election year. But within weeks of the end of the primary season, the handlers stepped in to deal with the "Michelle problem."

Woman for Obama have been having forums on woman's issues all across the country. Since the beginning the Obama campaign has been more focused on woman's issues than Hillary. Why didn't Hillary ever give such a speech? Hillary only ever pandered to the gender issue.

Independent films and HBO have a lot of good actors of different races. I don't watch much of the regular TV networks anymore. Those networks just have mindless reality shows,stupid family comedie, and dumb-down dramas that make all races look bad. The Ads I have seen are not about selling soap. They are ads about financial decisions, retirement, buying high end cars, all with blacks portrayed as professionals.

My point is... It's about time.

Cindy McCain appears to be getting younger looking every day. She looks like a Barbie Doll, or maybe even or Paris Hilton.

Do you think Obama is in an appropriate rhetorical position to give a speech on gender comparable to the speech he gave on race? I would think it was quite presumptuous, and I probably wouldn't be the only one.

But I'm hoping Michelle doesn't get "softened" too much for her convention speech. I am also looking forward to Hillary's speech. And isn't Elizabeth Edwards still speaking as well? I'm particularly excited this year about what the women have to say, and I hope all of their speeches include some of what Moore was looking for from Obama. I just don't think Obama is the person to say it.

I had always hoped Hillary would give a gender speech, but she seemed to piss the moral highground away with passive-aggressive digs instead of just taking the bull(shit) by the horns. Except that one time, when they went after Chelsea. I really admired her for that. I don't want to rehash the whole awful primary, though.