Cat Fight

I love a good cat fight. We rarely get to see a good cat fight. As guys, we talk about them. They are mythic. We exclaim to one another about how we saw these two chicks really get into it. We are really sort of perverse about it.

So, yesterday, we got the beginnings of a cat fight. Cindy McCain went on point over the Michelle Obama quote. Cindy McCain has always been proud of her country. She did a slap down of Michelle Obama’s quote on C-Span that has been reported narrowly and out of context as “…this is the first time as an adult that I have been proud of my country…”

In defense of Michelle Obama; when you read the entirety of her remarks, the clear meaning of what she was saying was, “…..this is the first time as an adult that I have seen the country filled with hope….and I am so proud….” She remembers the hope of her childhood that emanated from Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. In that context, what she said was completely appropriate and happens to be exactly what so many of us feel today about the Obama campaign.

Michelle Obama could have no doubt said it better. Regardless, the stage is set for some fabulous cat fights. Cindy vs. Michelle.

What a difference. On the one hand is a thin-lipped, peroxided, sorority sister with the antiqued Gibson Girl hairdo. Cindy McCain is the daughter of blue color wealth. Her family owns the largest alcoholic beverage distributorship in Arizona. You want beer? We got beer? It is a classic example of how money buys class. Sell to the masses, live with the classes. We will also get doses of her addiction to painkillers, and the quiet closure of the charges of falsifying prescriptions and stealing drugs. Oh, and she had a stroke in 2004 and has short term memory problems. “John? Is that you John?” A good counterpoint to her 71 year old war hero husband?

On the other hand is the bright, ambitious child of the African American middle class whose intellectual firepower gained her admission to Princeton and Harvard Law School and success as a senior executive of a major health care provider. Michelle Obama can stand up and speak extemporaneously and eloquently. She was fabulous on Larry King. But, as we have just seen, she has to measure every single word in the YouTube universe. She possesses, in the equal measure with her husband, grace and aplomb. Now, she just needs to hone her skills for the coming cat fights.