Laura, you're doing a heck of a job
From Gallup News Service:
Job approval? Even though I know the First Lady is always very busy, I have trouble thinking of her activities as a "job" (the exception being Jacqueline Kennedy, who has rarely received serious credit for her significant role in carrying out our nation's foreign relations). Imagine, though I know it isn't easy, the United States with a woman president. Does anyone seriously think we would be rating the First Gentleman's "job performance" based on his success at throwing state dinners, his literacy program, or how well he stood by his wife?
More likely, our culture would mock him. I cannot imagine a First Gentleman not holding a "real" job while his wife was in office. But if a First Lady were to announce she planned to continue her law practice or professorship, well...consider what happened to Dr. Steinberg.
Just because what a First Lady does is not a paid vocation subject to employer scrutiny does not mean that it has to be useless. Consider Lady Bird Johnson, whom people made fun of at the time, but who turned out to be a wise and creative environmentalist. Or Betty Ford, who educated an entire nation on the treatment of addictive disorders.
Now consider Laura Bush, who I understand is a very well-read, intelligent woman. Put aside for a moment the fact that she is married to a dishonest, idiotic war criminal. What is is that she has done that has gotten her such a high approval rating? I'll tell you what she has done: She has kept her mouth shut. Early on, she committed the sin of saying she was pro-choice, and ever since then, the most daring thing she has said is that she hoped George would appoint a woman to the Supreme Court.
America likes its women to shut the hell up. If you shut up, you are feminine. If you shut up, no one can say you are "shrill."
She has allowed, however, that women and girls in countries where rape is an everyday affair, in and out of marriage, should just say "no" and stay away from those birth control education classes.
While her husband George W. Bush struggles to improve his low job approval ratings, Laura Bush remains a very popular first lady. Her current job approval ratings are among the most positive ratings Gallup has recorded for a first lady.
Job approval? Even though I know the First Lady is always very busy, I have trouble thinking of her activities as a "job" (the exception being Jacqueline Kennedy, who has rarely received serious credit for her significant role in carrying out our nation's foreign relations). Imagine, though I know it isn't easy, the United States with a woman president. Does anyone seriously think we would be rating the First Gentleman's "job performance" based on his success at throwing state dinners, his literacy program, or how well he stood by his wife?
More likely, our culture would mock him. I cannot imagine a First Gentleman not holding a "real" job while his wife was in office. But if a First Lady were to announce she planned to continue her law practice or professorship, well...consider what happened to Dr. Steinberg.
Just because what a First Lady does is not a paid vocation subject to employer scrutiny does not mean that it has to be useless. Consider Lady Bird Johnson, whom people made fun of at the time, but who turned out to be a wise and creative environmentalist. Or Betty Ford, who educated an entire nation on the treatment of addictive disorders.
Now consider Laura Bush, who I understand is a very well-read, intelligent woman. Put aside for a moment the fact that she is married to a dishonest, idiotic war criminal. What is is that she has done that has gotten her such a high approval rating? I'll tell you what she has done: She has kept her mouth shut. Early on, she committed the sin of saying she was pro-choice, and ever since then, the most daring thing she has said is that she hoped George would appoint a woman to the Supreme Court.
America likes its women to shut the hell up. If you shut up, you are feminine. If you shut up, no one can say you are "shrill."
She has allowed, however, that women and girls in countries where rape is an everyday affair, in and out of marriage, should just say "no" and stay away from those birth control education classes.
posted by Diane at 9:31 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
A couple of friends who know her say she's really a closet Democrat. I don't believe it for a minute, although there are Democrats who are in bed with George Bush.
By
Anonymous, at
11:35 AM
I'm pretty sure she is a closet intellectual. People who know her say she is happiest when reading the dark Russian novels or sneaking into the ballet. Those First Ladies get the life quashed right out of them, with few exceptions.
By
Diane, at
11:56 AM
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