Michelle Obama

If you’re not one of the people in “Everyone” who loves Michelle Obama, you must not be following the collapse of Newsweek. In one of the magazine’s last print editions, Allison Samuels is asking “What's next for our incredibly popular first lady? Samuel L. Jackson and other super-fans weigh in.”

Jackson is in love: “Michelle is Superwoman. What can’t she do?...That’s why people love her. She can be on the Supreme Court and anywhere else she wants. She can be the president. She’s history and she’ll stay history because she is so amazingly smart and together.” Samuels continued in this syrupy vein:

Even if Obama loses next week, the media goo machine will keep cranking away. The new TV Guide is already speculating: “Will Michelle Obama Be the Next Oprah?” Writer Stephen Battaglio imagines what a star she could become (if her husband loses).

She could be bigger than Oprah? “Michelle Obama is such an appealing TV presence that if she and her husband find themselves moving out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, she’ll have the opportunity to make the transition from high-profile engaging talk-show guest to high-profile talk-show host – arguably the biggest ever in terms of recognition.” Experts agree, like a former CNN president.

In a fawning softball interview with First Lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday's NBC Today, special correspondent Ryan Seacrest was eager to know how she helps the President during debates: "What did you say to him when the two of you walked backstage after the first debate?...Have you spoken to him about the prep?...does he make eye contact with you? Does he look at you for encouragement?"

The First Lady explained: "I'm perched. I'm looking at him. I'm smiling. I'm giving a thumbs up if he can see it....I assume that he can, so I make sure that I'm always giving him that positive love."

In the fourth and final part of ABC's 20 minute-long interview with Michelle Obama, Nightline co-anchor Cynthia McFadden on Wednesday praised the First Lady's skill at "the art of the cut that doesn't draw blood." After playing a clip of Mrs. Obama at the Democratic National Convention, McFadden cued, "Do you think Mitt Romney is the kind of guy that slams the door behind himself [when it comes to allowing opportunity for others]?" [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

The journalist hyped that the First Lady turns her husband's "cool persona just a little bit warmer." After three days of softball questions, McFadden's attempts at getting tough mostly fell flat. While talking about hopes for Barack Obama's presidency, the reporter wondered, "Have you had to pull back some of your own expectations; what was possible from even this perch?"

Tuesday's Nightline featured the second part of an exhaustive, three part interview with Michelle Obama. Once again, co-anchor Cynthia McFadden failed to ask any tough questions to the First Lady, instead offering only softballs and repeating White House spin.

McFadden followed Mrs. Obama as she did events promoting higher employment for returning veterans. Co-anchor Bill Weir teased the latest segment as yet another celebrity puff piece (complete with clips from Sesame Street and Extreme Makeover): "We got a little taste of Michelle Obama at home last night. Tonight, you two go on the road." Since military issues were the topic, where were the questions about the 2000th death in Afghanistan?

One of the lamest excuses liberals offered for Barack Obama's poor performance at last week's debate was that Mitt Romney somehow cheated.

On NBC's Tonight Show Monday, Jay Leno said, "I don't know who he cheated off of. I think you can rule out President Obama, okay? He didn't have any answers worth stealing" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary).

Nightline co-anchor Cynthia McFadden continued her fawning, multi-part profile of Michelle Obama on Monday night, worrying about the "extra responsibilities" that Mrs. Obama faces as an African American First Lady. She then offered this softball: "Is it different to be a black child growing up in America today than it was four years ago?" [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Fellow co-anchor Bill Weir bragged that his colleague had been "granted rare access" to Mrs. Obama. McFadden wondered if the President is "a bit intimidated, a little bit afraid" of his wife. The journalist then pushed Mrs. Obama to brag about the impact she's had.

ABC's Cynthia McFadden was dripping with sugary admiration on Monday for President Obama's "not-so-secret weapon," First Lady Michelle Obama. She touted Obama as a big hugger" and "very warm in person."

Obama made statements like this that went unchallenged by McFadden: "I rarely step foot in the West Wing. In fact, people are shocked when they see me there." That sentiment of a hands-off policy flatly contradicts Jodi Kantor's reporting in the New York Times of definitive friction between the First Lady and the President's staff. [Video below the break. Audio here.]

The Obamas found the time to appear on The View on Monday, and the hour-long special was shown on Tuesday. In yet another casual interview for the entertainment-focused media, the First Couple responded to a myriad of questions from the hosts of The View that only touched on issues of significance near the end. Did we really need to hear about the Obama marriage and courtship....again?

For example, Barbara Walters wanted to know how they were going to celebrate their twentieth wedding anniversary. Sherri Shepherd thought they should share the story behind their first kiss. Joy Behar wondered what time they go to bed and what they talk about. Elisabeth Hasselbeck asked about their daughters' extracurricular activities, but Whoopi Goldberg stayed uncharacteristically quiet until she could ask a more topical question.  

CBS Late Show host David Letterman on Tuesday actually asked Barack Obama if his reelection is pivotal.

The question came during a discussion about the gridlock in Congress and the differing views of the two Parties concerning how to cut the deficit (video follows with transcript and commentary):

David Letterman didn't only suck up to President Obama during his interview Tuesday night.

The CBS Late Show host also gushed and fawned over the first lady saying, "I feel very good when I'm with her" (video follows with transcript and commentary, file photo):

NBC late-night host Jimmy Fallon somehow doesn't think it's enough to "slow jam the news" with President Obama, or exercise with the First Lady in the East Room of the White House. As the Democratic convention closed, he performed a James Taylor impression, singing the hit "Fire and Rain" with the joke title "Romney and Bain." The Huffington Post boasted "It's also a pretty explicit endorsement of the Obama campaign, with the lyric, '"So I'll prob'ly vote Obama again,' right there in the refrain."

Not only that, but Fallon sings in 2016, he'll vote for "the Dream Team, Michelle and Hillary." (Video below)

The fashionistas in the “objective” press displayed their favoritism by boosting Michelle Obama’s convention speech dress and quoted flagrant Michelle-boosters like Kate Betts, who insisted whatever stylishness the Republican women had they owed to the pioneering Mrs. Obama.

On Wednesday, the Associated Press posted a story headlined, “Michelle Obama gets raves for Tracy Reese dress,” and out came the bare-arms worship: 

Just how in the tank for President Obama is MSNBC contributor Ronald Reagan?

On Friday's Hardball, he actually said Michelle Obama gave the "best speech by a first lady I have ever seen, and, you know, all due respect to my own mother" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

Last week in Tampa, CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley and NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, both hit Ann Romney with a pointed political contention from the left, but tonight (Thursday) in Charlotte, neither challenged Michelle Obama with any political argument forwarded by conservatives.

Williams posed a long-winded question about the Obama daughters and cued up the First Lady to assess a New York Times reporter’s take that President Obama is “‘a proud yet humbled President, a confident yet scarred President, a dreamer mugged by reality.’ Does that resemble the man you know?”

On Wednesday's NBC Today, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd cheered Michelle Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention while running down the GOP: "[She] had a hold on the delegates in this hall in a way that no speaker was able to do in Tampa. A stark contrast to the Republicans in the way they structured their convention and with the enthusiasm."

During NBC's live convention coverage Tuesday night, Todd could barely contain his excitement. At one point, he proclaimed that the First Lady "owned this convention...in a way that no speaker owned the floor of the convention in Tampa." Prior to Mrs. Obama's address, Todd applauded "the passion that you see throughout the evening" at the Democratic gathering, and claimed that Republicans "waited for the television cameras to come on" to show similar enthusiasm at their convention.

As NewsBusters has been reporting, the press's gushing and fawning over Michelle Obama's speech Tuesday at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte has been almost sick-making.

So over the top was the praise that Politico's co-founder and executive editor Jim VandeHei said on C-SPAN early Wednesday morning, "The mainstream media tends to be quite smitten with the Obamas" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

CNN fawned over Michelle Obama's DNC speech on Tuesday, lauding it as "not hitting a home run but probably a grand slam," as Wolf Blitzer first put it.

"She did an amazing job for this President of the United States," gushed Blitzer. Anderson Cooper tweeted that "I've never heard such a well delivered speech by a First Lady ever." Piers Morgan argued that "Michelle Obama, I thought, knocked it out of the park as you Americans would say." [Video below the break. Audio here.]

“Michelle Obama owned this convention, the delegates – I’ve been on the floor right now, back to back, two weeks in a row – in a way that no speaker owned the floor of the convention in Tampa.”

So said Chuck Todd, NBC's chief White House correspondent, on MSNBC minutes after the first lady finished her speech at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

It was a metaphysical certitude the folks on MSNBC were going to gush and fawn over Michelle Obama after her speech to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte Tuesday, but Lawrence O'Donnell really took the cake.

“There is now no question who the best speechmaker in the history of the first ladyship is, and that is Michelle Obama” (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Andrea Mitchell gushed over Michelle Obama on Tuesday's NBC Nightly News, labeling her a "political superstar" and "her husband's best campaigner, hardly needing to practice with the Teleprompters or get a feel for the stage." Mitchell went out of her way to point out how Mrs. Obama apparently is "all about hugs, connecting to people with a physical embrace." [audio available here; video below the jump]

The correspondent also emphasized the First Lady's supposed celebrity status by noting how she has "become a regular on late night," and playing clips from interviews she gave to Ryan Seacrest, David Letterman, and to E! News.

New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor, author of a biography of the Obamas, on Tuesday filed a flattering profile of "hugging" Michelle Obama, "First Lady Strives for Caring Image Above Partisan Fray." Kantor excused the first lady's verbal "missteps" ("For the first time in my adult lifetime...I am really proud of my country") but avoided describing them.

The profile appeared the day after a surprisingly critical article from Kantor on the Labor Day front page on President Obama (beyond the complimentary headline): "The Competitor in Chief – In Politics, and About Everything Else, Obama Plays to Win."

The Augusta National Golf Club did an amazing thing Monday: it finally admitted women as members, with one of them being African-American Condoleezza Rice.

But that wasn’t good enough for MSNBC’s Ed Schultz who whined on his program later that evening that Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton should have received this honor instead (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):