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Opinion: Michelle Obama on ‘The View’

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I caught Barack Obama persevering through an appearance on The Tyra Banks Show (on which he played basketball and kindly demurred when Tyra twice tried to get an invite to the Lincoln Bedroom), but I missed Michelle Obama on ‘The View.’ And in case you did too, here’s a round-up of commentariat responses.

Top of the Ticket has the highlights -- her bacon breakfasts, her husband’s facility with kids -- and ends with a zinger: ‘She was cool and collected during her ‘View’ appearance; if anyone was nervous, it was Whoopi Goldberg, who spilled the contents of her coffee cup just as the show broke for its first commercial.’

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Petulant posts on Shakesville a transcript and video of the Matthew Broderick gaffe:

Michelle’s face is priceless when Broderick tells of [his son] James Wilke’s reasoning for Obama: ‘He’s five. So the answer might not be as sophisticated as you would like. For one thing, he likes the man to beat the lady.’ Michelle responds: ‘That’s James Wilke, not me.’

The Caucus liveblogs it, noting that the appearance was a major one for Michelle as the campaign tries to revamp her image. The bloggers note Michelle’s ‘fist-bumps’ for all the hosts, her sleeveless outfit, her (high) height, her praise for Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton, her opinion on pantyhose (con), her mom’s gambling prowess, and her husband’s Father’s Day speech.

(If this post isn’t meta enough for you already, the Wall Street Journal rounds up the liveblogs of the Michelle appearance. U.S. News and World Report has a round-up too, and shorter than this one.)

Access Hollywood details the dap moment in full:

“Wait,” she told them after sitting down. “I have to be greeted properly. Fist bump, please.” Earlier this month, a Fox News analyst suggested that her affectionate on-stage knuckle bump with her husband, on the night he locked up the Democratic presidential nomination, might have been a “terrorist’s fist jab.” “It is now my signature bump,” Michelle Obama told “The View” co-hosts. “But let me tell you, I’m not that hip. I got this from the young staff. That’s the new high-five.”

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Troy Patterson of Slate has important sartorial details (the encoded meaning in the brand she’s wearing, for example), and gets the final word on the appearance: ‘She didn’t, in fact, say anything of interest or controversy during her live performance, which means that she and her handlers should right now be enjoying the glow of perfect success.’

*Photo courtesy of the Associated Press.

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