A recent Gallup poll listed Obama as the most “admired” woman in the United States. As Obama has famously said, “when they go low, we go high.” In her new book, Becoming, Obama describes how campaign aids encouraged her to “play to my strengths and to remember the things I most enjoyed talking about, which was my love for my husband and kids, my connection with working mothers, and my proud Chicago roots.” Together, the Obamas became disciplined in responding to the racist attacks, in part due the desire not to confirm the stereotypes. Sensitive to these portrayals, Obama acquiesced when her staff asked her to soften her gestures and play down her political contributions to Barack’s first campaign run. Becoming is an exquisite lesson in creating political ideology-one that I find troubling.
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