Desperate Housewives for Barry

Were you as taken by surprise as I was to find this email from Michelle Obama in your inbox today? What? You mean you didn't get one? Well, permit me to share the sanctimony:

Karen --



As I have traveled across the country, I have had the privilege of meeting incredible women from all walks of life. From young women paying their own way through college, to moms working the extra shift to keep food on the table, to women struggling to make ends meet during retirement. We talk about their bills, their children -- how they're constantly striving to strike that balance between work and family. And no matter what kind of challenges they're facing, they don't complain. They just work harder.

(Actually, Michelle, my friends and I complain all the time, because there is a hell of a lot to bitch about. You mean we should all just shut up and take on that third minimum wage, no-benefit job? Since your hubby cut home heating assistance for this winter, I guess a lot of us will be too cold and tired to complain. You may think quiet desperation is a virtue. But sometimes it's healthier to scream... and protest). 

This is what we do as women. We persevere. Because no matter our ages, backgrounds, or stations in life, we are determined to leave a better world for our children and give them opportunities we never even dreamed of.

 (Thank you for acknowledging that I care about my children as much as you care about yours, despite my lowly station in life. Due in part to your husband's policies -- including failure to regulate Wall Street, or to prosecute even one banker -- that better world is turning out to be a nightmare for them and for us. One in five children now lives in poverty, yet your husband thinks we should share the sacrifice with corporate jet owners. You're right: we are leaving them a world we couldn't have imagined when we gave birth to them).

 Women have always been the heart of the Obama organization. We make up nearly half of the American workforce and are the majority of students in America's colleges and universities. We're the primary caregivers for our children and seniors. We're the heads of households and workplaces across the country.

(Is that why your husband fought so tepidly in nominating Elizabeth Warren to be head of her own  Consumer Protection Agency?  Oh, never mind: Timmy Geithner threw a tantrum. Read "Confidence Men" by Ron Suskind if you want to really find out about the women in the O-rganization. More like they were stabbed in the heart by the Oval Office Boys Club.)

And right now, it's time for us all to dig deep, step up, and keep building this campaign together: person by person, discussion by discussion.

(Dig deep into our knock-off handbags to come up with a few tattered bucks, you mean?  Step up and take off our slippers, you mean?)

Today, we are officially launching Women for Obama -- and I am incredibly honored to be serving as its chair. This is a special group dedicated to growing this campaign from the ground up. Because we know better than anyone that movements for real and lasting change have got to start at the grassroots -- and they're sustained by the relationships we develop with one another. Together, that's what we're going to do -- build relationships with supporters, new and old, and grow this campaign -- one woman at a time.

(Tear me out at the roots, Michelle. The only movement with the power to effect real and lasting  change is the Occupy Movement. The only thing "moving" in the Obama Campaign is all the Wall Street money --  from their bloated profits to his billion dollar war chest.  Better rename your effort One Woman (you) for a One-Time Obama.  He two-timed the rest of us, Michelle!)

I wanted to ask you myself if you would join us. The stories of the incredible women I meet serve as a constant reminder of why we're all here: because American families all around the country are facing very real problems. They're balancing mortgage payments and utilities bills with full-time jobs and raising children. They're struggling to make ends meet while still trying to put money aside to send their kids to college one day.

(Oh puh-leeze!  Let me try to wrap my head around that last paragraph. "We are all here because families are facing very real problems". Does that mean a} You and your husband exist only to to solve our problems; or b} We all exist in order to have problems.  Love the balanced comparisons, though. Very centristy. It is indeed hard to juggle mortgage payments with jobs when millions of us have already lost both homes and jobs. And your husband did little to enforce HAMP and is doing zilch to stop foreclosure fraud. We struggle to make ends meet, and can't afford shoes, but you think we can still manage to put money away in a college fund? Michelle! You really need to get out more.)

Barack understands these issues because he's lived them. He was raised by a single mother who struggled to put herself through school and pay the bills. When she needed help, Barack's grandmother stepped in, waking up every morning before dawn to take a bus to her job at a bank. And even though she worked hard and was good at what she did, she ultimately hit a glass ceiling and was passed over for promotions time and again because she was a woman.

(Barack had a pretty good childhood, despite the mythology. He went to private school from fifth grade on, for one thing. He had a strong extended family support system. Read "A Singular Woman" by Janny Scott as an antidote to "Dreams from My Father". What kind of narcissist writes a memoir at the age of 33 anyway?)

So Barack knows what it means when a family struggles. He knows what it means when someone doesn't have a chance to fulfill their potential. And today, as a father, he knows what it means to want your daughters to grow up with no limits on their dreams.That's why, since taking office, he's worked tirelessly to make sure every child and every family gets a fair shake.

 (Please give just one example of how your husband was thwarted in reaching his potential. This is a guy who had tons of help along the way. He was hand-picked by Wall Street to be their guy! That's why, since he took office, he has made several offers to slash Social Security, and sold out the public option in health care reform behind closed doors -- then continued to pretend it was "still on the table". He had worked tirelessly, all right: to make sure corporations get a fair shake while perfecting the art of the soaring populist speech.)

The historic health reform he passed is making sure every American family gets the quality and affordable care they need to stay healthy. The crucial investments he's made in our students and workers -- raising the standards in our public schools and building out job-training programs at community colleges -- are investments in our country's economic future. And the very first bill he signed into law -- the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act -- will help make it easier for women to get equal pay for equal work, because he knows that women's success in this economy is the key to families' success in this economy.

 (Obama Campaign Talking Points #1,2 &3: Lilly Ledbetter, Lilly Ledbetter, Lilly Ledbetter.  What about the time the White House sacked Shirley Sherrod without cause because of a filthy Andrew Breitbart video? And more people than ever remain uninsured -- 50 million of us. The private insurance parasites have raised premiums to unaffordable levels and posted record profits.  

But we have so much more to do. And, as women and supporters of this campaign, we need to keep showing up -- and we need to keep fighting the good fight.So I'm asking you to join me, and women all across the country who support this movement. I'm asking you to say you're ready to work.

(The only movement we're ready to join is the Occupy Movement. Won't you join us, Mrs Obama? Oh, and we're more than ready to work: for a living wage.... all 20% of the chronically unemployed and underemployed of us. Is Barack going to pay his campaign workers, or are the ladies expected to work for free?)

Join Women for Obama, and help us grow this organization.Thank you for being a part of this.

She's In: Real Desperate Housewife and Obama Bundler Eva Longoria