Michelle Obama made headlines last week after she referred to herself as a “busy single mom” during an interview with WCAX – a CBS affiliate in Burlington, Vermont. Since Glenn was on vacation, he wasn’t able to cover the story when it happened, but he quickly made up for lost time on radio this morning.
“This is something that happened last week, but we haven't a chance to comment on it,” Glenn said. “I believe [Michelle Obama] is married to someone kind of famous, however, I believe she believes she is single.”
MRS. OBAMA: …So we have to deal with the question of access. And believe me, as a busy single mother – I shouldn’t say single – as a busy mother. Sometimes when you’ve got the husband who’s president, it can feel a little single, but he’s there.
“I believe she believes she is single,” Glenn reiterated. “They take vacations separately. Look, if you take a vacation separate from your spouse and your children, maybe once it's like, ‘You know what, it's boy's night and these are guys that graduated from college with. We're having a weekend in Vegas.’ Not a sign of a real healthy thing going on…”
“I totally disagree with that,” Stu interjected. Stu, who has been known to take the annual boys trip to the Super Bowl, doesn’t think going on occasional trips is the problem, but the Obama’s separate vacationing habits have become somewhat routine.
“You're going to Vegas for a weekend… But that's not what these guys do,” Glenn said. “They go on separate vacations. He goes there, and she goes there. What? What is that?”
“And then they send the kids on separate vacations too,” Pat added. “Every spring break they send both daughters.”
Beyond their independent vacation tendencies, this comment is particularly insensitive coming from someone who constantly tries to paint herself as an average, everyday woman but, in reality, is living a very privileged life.
“You shouldn’t say single. Why,” Pat asked, “because you're married to the President! It might be a very telling moment.”
“It could be, Glenn said. “[Maybe] she does feel like a single mother but not in a bad way. His job is all consuming. We know that she hates the White House. She has dreams – literally she said my biggest dream is just leaving this house and going back to Chicago. So she hates it. Not as much as we hate having you there. But she just hates it. And so she could very well just be like, ‘I'm kind of a single mom because he's working all the time.’”
Despite Glenn’s surprising defense of the First Lady, the sympathy did not last long. “But that [argument] doesn’t work because [the President] leaves the office at 5 o’clock and doesn't come in sometimes until 10 AM. He works a full…”
“A full six hours,” Pat said. “Five or six hours – five hours with lunch.”
“Sometimes he's on the phone,” Glenn added. “Well, if she has a tendency of she's saying, ‘I'm a single mom,’ maybe she should see if everybody can stay home more often. He is technically working from home. He’s got his ‘home’ office. He’s there. You’re upstairs… I'm just saying.”
