Peggy Noonan: First Lady Should Seem “Slightly Drugged”; McArdle: Obama Too Skinny

I know this isn’t exactly a newsflash, but conservatives really have weird, deep-seated issues with gender. While considering Obama’s elitism today in the WSJ, Nooner just can’t help herself and goes after Michelle Obama.

The other is elitism, a charge that clearly grates on him [Obama] and unnerves his wife, who has a great deal that would be attractive in a first lady (intelligence, accomplishment, beauty) but lacks placidity, which is, actually, necessary. All first ladies, first spouses, should be like Denis Thatcher, slightly dazed, mildly inscrutable, utterly supportive. It is the only job in the world where "seems slightly drugged" is a positive job qualification.

In other words, Nooner wants her first ladies to be mindless Stepford Wife zombies on GHB. Kinda like her.

Jump over to Meg McArdle, who frets that Barack Obama might just be too girly to beat St. McCain.

I don’t know that I agree with Mark Kleiman that Barack Obama’s masculinity won’t be an issue in the coming election. On the one hand he’s tall, but he’s kind of, well, scrawny looking. But also, the political space I think he’s trying to occupy–building understanding and reconciliation between hostile voter grops–is generally seen as a woman’s role. And he’s running against a much-decorated fighter pilot renowned for chasing women until his walker started getting in the way. I’m not saying it will be decisive, but it’s probably something Obama needs to address, and I’m not sure how they will.

Yes, Obama will need to address why he’s insufficiently manly enough for that critical "only votes for buffed out skirt-chasing he-men" demographic.

Keep it up, Meg. You’re well on you’re way to becoming the next Nooner.

Related posts:

1. Peggy Noonan: Catering to the Base Hurts the Country, Except When Republicans are in Charge
2. Peggy Noonan: Obama’s Health Care Proposals Must Be Terrible, Because No Republicans Support Them
3. Peggy Noonan: 9/11 Wasn’t Bush’s Fault, But the Great Recession is All Obama’s
4. Joe Scarborough & Peggy Noonan: Americans Secretly Yearning for Republican-Controlled Congress
5. Peggy Noonan Calls Rush, Newt, Conservative Activists “Idiots” for Attacking Sotomayor