A Tale of Two Michel(l)es

During her husband's race for the White House in 2008, soon-to-be First Lady Michelle Obama made a controversial comment about her being proud of her country for the first time in her adult life.  In the 2011 clip below, Melissa Harris-Perry discusses how the media portrayed Ms. Obama's comments vs. similar ones made by Republican congresswoman Michele Bachmann. You may be wondering why I'm posting about a topic that should be dead and buried. The reason is because while most people have either forgiven or forgotten about Michelle's statements, people on the right like my good friend "dmarks" can't let it go.

Here's my question for the righties who continue to trash Michelle Obama for this: How is what she said any different from the comments made by Congresswoman Bachmann?

By the way, happy belated 49th birthday to Ms. Obama (who is rocking the bangs quite nicely).

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Melissa Harris-Perry Set to Be MSNBC's Newest Host

On Thursday, it was announced that MSNBC contributor and political analyst Melissa Harris-Perry will be hosting her own show for the network starting on Saturday, February 4th. The new show, which hasn't been titled yet, will air on Saturday and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m (following Up w/ Chris Hayes) . You can read more about her upcoming show here.

Harris-Perry, who also serves as a professor of political science at Tulane University, has been a frequent guest on MSNBC, with appearances on several of their programs. She has also filled in for hosts Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell. Her busy schedule also includes writing for The Nation.

As we often do, this past weekend me and my brother-in-law were talking about politics, the media, etc. I was telling him about the excellent job Harris-Perry has done filling in for Maddow and O'Donnell, adding that I felt MSNBC should give her a shot at hosting her own show. In fact, he's the one who sent me the news that Harris-Perry will be the network's newest addition.

Although I'm an MSNBC fan (aren't you shocked?!), I have also been critical of them (in particular, their programming lineup on the weekends). At the very least, the addition of Harris-Perry to their weekend lineup means 4 hours less of Lockup documentaries!

Congratulations to Melissa Harris-Perry. Her promotion to regular MSNBC host is a well-deserved one. 

Below is a clip of Harris-Perry filling in for Maddow back in 2011: