Weeeeeeoooooh!” shrieked the studio audience as Michelle Obama came on the set of ABC’s “The View” yesterday in her role as guest co-host.
Aggrieved? Not this time. Controversial? Heavens, no. Here was Mrs. Obama as the Ideal Candidate’s Ideal Wife: radiant, chic in a floral sun dress, uniting not dividing, confiding “it’s fun to look pretty.”
Her charming blandness was, of course, deliberate. Mrs. Obama’s appearance on the televised kaffee klatsch is part of what appears to be a calculated effort to polish the rough bits from a public persona that in the past absolutely bristled with resentment.
Gone was the gal who alarmed Americans by describing us as “cynical” and “mean” people with “broken souls.” Gone was the irate Ivy League graduate griping about how long it took her and Barack to repay their student loans. Not a whiff was there of Michelle Obama’s much-repeated complaints that no matter how hard “folks” work, unnamed powers cruelly “move the bar.”
“You look gorgeous!” cried a co-hostess, exemplifying the hard-hitting commentary and unflinching questions of interest to American women that are characteristic of the show.
“Do you mind if we call you Michelle?” Barbara Walters asked daringly. Michelle didn’t mind.
“You have two daughters. How do you juggle?” someone wondered. Mrs. Obama said she hopes to keep life for her children as normal as possible.
Whoopi Goldberg wanted to know whether America should “take a lesson from big business and get a little diversity training” so that all persons could learn to talk “with white folks.”
Mrs. Obama flatteringly said that diversity training and discussions ought to take the form of “The View,” where individuals can have a heated argument and have their feelings hurt, but can come back again tomorrow.
“Pantyhose or not pantyhose?” This was Barbara Walters again.
Giggles ensued from all directions. Here was a topic of relevance to us all.
Ms. Walters elaborated: “Out of respect to you,” she told Michelle, she herself had worn pantyhose to the studio. The camera obediently cut to the sight of Ms. Walters’ shapely legs tucked girlishly beneath the anchor desk.
Michelle conceded that she had not worn hose, and had indeed “stopped wearing pantyhose a long time ago, because it’s painful, and they’d always rip.”
The camera then gave us the sight not of Mrs. Obama’s legs, as television viewers might expect, but again of Ms. Walters’. While the women on set debated the pros and cons of pantyhose, you could just imagine the heated exchange in the control room:
“Camera One, get me a shot of Michelle’s legs!”
“What, are you nuts? We can’t go there!”
“They’re talking about her legs, cut to her legs!”
“Man, she’s not Sharon Stone! This is the wife of the guy who could be the next president! We can’t shoot her legs!”
Pretty soon we were on to the topic of breakfast. Michelle divulged that she likes to eat toast, fruit and bacon. Her co-hosts were swift to follow up: “Does Barack eat the bacon?”
Yes, it seems, Barack does eat the bacon. Additionally, he is “sweet and empathetic” — there was momentary hilarious panic at the thought of viewers misconstruing this as “pathetic” — but even he does not take out the garbage.
Did Michelle Obama pull it off? Yes, I think she did. She came across as graceful and fun and not at all spiky. And judging from the numerous ads for dietary fiber that aired during yesterday’s’ segments of “The View,” I’m guessing she was seeking to woo Hillary Clinton’s middle-age female constituency to her husband’s cause.
Also, it never hurts to be pelted with puffball questions, such as whether Mrs. Clinton suffered during the primary campaign from sexism:
“People aren’t used to strong women,” Mrs. Obama said, trotting out the tired old feminist complaint (and getting a round of earnest nods from the “View” ladies).
Then, tellingly, she remarked on the popularity of the current first lady.
“I’m taking some cues,” Mrs. Obama said of Laura Bush.
“There’s a reason people like her. She doesn’t fuel the fire.”
