Roy makes a good point as well.

From the same speech:

“And just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment…”

“Life for regular folks has gotten worse over the course of my lifetime, through Republican and Democratic administrations. It hasn’t gotten much better.”

Life getting worse. Frustration. Disappointment. Yeah, that certainly sounds like she has been proud of America.

I can see how you would still interpret it in the way you have, and I don’t think it was an especially bright thing to say, if only because it leaves her open to that kind of interpretation.

A number of other sites have updated their stories to reflect their inaccuracies, including the article quoted at the start of this page. I wonder why you haven’t? If your thoughts do not change with the full quote, then surely accurate reporting is preferable?

Nevertheless, I don’t read it like you do, and I don’t find that the modifier “really” drastically changes the statement. It’s still a really unbelievably mind-numbing thing to say.

A black man having a chance at the Presidency is not something that singularly deserves someone being “really proud” of the United States.

There are a massive amount of things that we should be “unreservedly proud” of. That Michelle Obama would say what she did is very telling. At the very least you are being extremely generous in your interpretation of Michelle Obama’s words. You might want to check out the Levin audio in the new update to see where others are coming from.

That’s very different to saying “for the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country.”

Your version suggests that she has never been proud before.

The actual version suggests that she has been proud before, most likely of many of the things that you list. However, she may feel that because this is the first time that a black man and a woman have a genuine chance to become president, she can be unreservedly proud.

I am sure you are not misquoting her deliberately, because that would hardly be fair, so I thought I’d alert you to your error.

Regards,

Irving.