Tipsheet

Two Gaffe-Prone Ladies Together

Teresa Heinz Kerry joined Michelle Obama to campaign in Pennsylvania.

Mrs. Kerry is famously imperious and gaffe-prone, but she may have met her match in Mrs. Obama, who had this to say:

“The truth of the American experience today for many regular folks is that folks are trying to reach a bar that just keeps moving.”

But, Obama said she still believes her husband is the underdog in the race.

“We are gonna need Pennsylvania,” she said. “Because in this ever-shifting, moving bar, Barack Obama will always be the underdog. No matter how much money he raises, no matter how many wins he pulls together, no matter how many delegates he accumulates; he is still the underdog. It’s the way it works.”

We know that Mrs. Obama thinks America is "just downright mean" and that things have gone disastrously downhill since she was a little girl.  What isn't is clear is what she means when she insists that because of an "ever-shifting, moving bar," her husband is doomed to perpetual underdog status because "it's the way it works."

Is she asserting the presence of a racial double standard -- racial victimization talk that once again suggests that she has shared Jeremiah Wright's views every bit as much as her husband, if not more?  If not, to what does she attribute her husband's position as eternal underdog no matter what?