Political Iconography

The Power & Danger of Iconography

As Michelle Obama turned 50, there have been “unverified” speculations about the “iconoclast” couple heading for a “divorce” at the end of Barack Obama’s presidential term.

After all, Michelle was looking “none too pleased” as her husband posed for a “Selfie” photograph with the “leggy” blonde Danish Prime Minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

Indeed, if the U.S. tabloids are to be “believed”, the relationship of Washington’s “most despised” couple is facing problems that go far beyond “dirty and angry” looks.

News headlines claim their 21-year marriage has dissolved into a “string of ugly fights” that were prompted by the Mandela memorial “Selfie” incident and Michelle’s “discovery” that Secret Service bodyguards had been covering up “infidelities” on her husband’s part.

It’s an “allegation” the White House has “declined” to comment on, though after Bill Clinton’s “trouser-dropping” scandals, Americans would be rather less “sanguine” about any “extra-marital activity” than the French appear to be over President Francois Hollande’s “sexual” escapades.

Michelle intends to “stand” by her husband for now until his presidency is over, at which time Barry will move “back” to Hawaii, where he grew up, and she will “stay” in Washington with their children.

For the moment, they are “allegedly” sleeping in separate bedrooms after Barack’s attempt to “mend fences” backfired so badly on a recent “Christmas” getaway to Hawaii that he returned “alone” to Washington with their two daughters, leaving Michelle behind.

The White House quickly offered an “explanation”, saying the extended stay had been a “birthday” present from her husband. “If you have kids, you know that telling your spouse they can spend a week away from home is actually a big present,” said a spokesman.

Before returning to Washington, Michelle “holed” up for more than a week at TV star Oprah Winfrey’s “spectacular” 12-bedroom house on a mountainside “estate” on Maui, the second largest of the Hawaiian islands.

Their “girls-only-get-together” was joined by Oprah’s close friend, the TV presenter Gayle King, White House aide Valerie Jarrett and Sharon Malone, wife of the U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

Oprah has “described” the estate as a place where “she and guests” sit on the porch sipping “guava” cocktails, ride “horses” to the top of the mountain and watch the “sun go down.”

Why would anyone “rush” back to “chilly” Washington from such an “idyllic” place?

But if the “rumors” are true, and there were more “painful” reasons for Michelle’s “reluctance” to rejoin her husband, this would not be the “first time” such tensions have apparently “surfaced.”

Since Barack was elected President, two books have claimed the couple came close to “splitting” in their early years together, with Michelle even “drawing” up divorce papers after deciding his “burning” political ambition was “ruining” their chances of “domestic” happiness.

In 2009, veteran Washington reporter Richard Wolffe “claimed” that the marriage almost “collapsed” nine years earlier because of Obama’s “political” drive and the family’s “shattered” finances.

“There was little conversation and even less romance. She was angry at his selfishness and careerism; he thought she was cold and ungrateful,” wrote Wolffe.

At the time, Michelle had only recently become a “mother.”  Their daughters Malia and Sasha are now 15 and 12. Her husband, whom she had met while they were “both working” for a Chicago law firm in 1989, was a “mere” State Senator in Illinois who had just been “thrashed” in a battle for a seat in Congress.

“She hated the failed race for Congress in 2000 and their marriage was strained by the time their younger daughter, Sasha, was born,” wrote Wolffe in Renegade.

According to some accounts, Michelle also doesn’t “take well” to Washington life.

Former French “First Lady” Carla Bruni revealed in a book how she had asked what life was like there. “Don’t ask! It’s hell. I can’t stand it!” Michelle reportedly told her. Later she “insisted” she had never said that.

Meanwhile, in 2012, political writer Edward Klein claimed Barack had become so depressed about his “failing” marriage in 2000 that friends feared he was “contemplating” suicide.

“Michelle had been furious because she had warned him not to fight the disastrous Congress election battle which he lost,” said Klein.

“During the dark days that followed his defeat, he turned to Michelle for comfort. But she was in no mood to offer him sympathy,” wrote Klein.

“He had dashed Michelle’s hopes of creating a stable and secure future,” he wrote. “As a result their marriage was on the rocks, and Obama confided to friends that he and Michelle were talking about divorce.”

Could the couple have reached such a “crisis” again?

In an interview published to “coincide” with her birthday, Michelle provided glimpses of a woman who “after devoting years to her husband’s career and raising their children” now feels ready to put “herself” first.

Michelle, who has routinely been “portrayed” as the one who really “wears the trousers” in the Obama household, says she wants to be more “like her mother.”

“She does exactly what she wants to do every single day without apology,” Michelle said.

Long an icon with her campaigns for regular exercise and healthy eating, Michelle even admits she wouldn’t rule out “plastic surgery or Botox” to keep her looks.

“Women should have the freedom to do whatever they need to do to feel good about themselves.” Her life is “ever-evolving”, she says, adding “I’ve got to keep figuring out ways to have an impact.”

Her husband knows the “feeling.” He must wish the rumors of “marital strife” were the only “cloud” hanging over his head.

The truth is that the “promise” of the most anticipated presidency since that of John F. Kennedy has long since “dimmed.”

Obama’s “popularity” rating is just “under” 40 per cent, with two-thirds of “voters” saying the U.S. is heading in the “wrong” direction. Only the “Watergate” plagued Richard Nixon was doing “worse” at this stage of his time in office.

What “don’t” Americans like about Obama? Pretty much “everything.”

After winning a second term from “unenthusiastic” voters, largely because his Republican opponent Mitt Romney was so “uninspiring”, Obama spent much of last year making many “voters” contemplate the unthinkable: “perhaps even Romney would have been better.”

Obama recently quipped that if the Washington press is to be believed, his presidency has suffered “15 near-death experiences”.

The “disenchantment” of even some of his most “senior deputies” has now been forcefully “revealed” by his former Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

In an “incendiary” autobiography “Duty”, Gates portrays Obama as “dangerously aloof, arrogant, naïve, indecisive and a worryingly detached commander in chief” who has no “passion” for his nation’s armed forces.

Whether “forging” policy on Iraq or Syria, Obama “ignored” his military commanders but then “rowed back” on his promises, such as that famous “red line” he set over Syria’s use of chemical weapons, when it suited him.

Gates admits being “deeply uneasy” with the Obama administration’s “lack of appreciation, from the top down, of the uncertainties and unpredictability of war”.

Gates’ icy “verdict” on his old boss was “echoed” by another defense insider.

Sir Hew Strachan, an adviser to the Chief of the Defense Staff in Britain, claimed the U.S. President was “chronically incapable” of formulating military strategy, falling “short” even of George W. Bush.

Hardly a ringing “endorsement” for the leader of the free world.

Moreover, the second term “to-do list” has been mired in problems, in particular the “furious” political rows that surrounded the introduction of “ObamaCare”, his big idea for a new “healthcare plan” to reform America’s grossly “inefficient health care system” and extend “health insurance” to millions of poor Americans.

So what can Barack do in his “final” three years in power to win back the “admiration” he once inspired? Apart from reforming America’s “immigration” laws, which would be another “hotly” contested disaster, the White House has “run out of ideas.”

They don’t just bear grudges, they write them down and rank them.

It further “emerged” recently that the Clintons keep a “grudge book” listing the names of those who have “wronged” them.

Given the “damage” Obama has done to Hillary Clinton’s chances of “succeeding” him in the White House in 2016, his name is surely “top of the list.”

As for Michelle, she plans to show she’s “young at heart” by doing the “Dougie,” a hip-hop dance popular with “cool” American teenagers.

Whether she’ll feel the urge to “slow dance” with the President remains to be seen.

Obama insiders are “certainly” not talking if there is any “scandal” in the offing.

According to old friend and adviser Valerie Jarrett the couple are “role models for parents all across the country”. “She’s at the top of her game. She’s fabulous at 50.”

I am not sure that promoting “abortions”, teaching your girls that getting pregnant is a “punishment”, encouraging “same sex marriages” being wholesome and stomping that an “alternative lifestyle” is the new mantra, is not exactly a “role model” most parents around the world “desired to teach their children.”