E-mail a friendCynthia Tucker
airdate August 25, 2008
Cynthia Tucker is the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial page editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, whose work appears in more than 70 newspapers across the U.S. She was awarded the '07 Pulitzer Prize "for her courageous, clear-headed columns that evince a strong sense of morality and persuasive knowledge of the community." Her commentary topics included voting rights, racial stereotypes and African American leaders. Tucker is a graduate of Auburn University and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard.
Journalist rates Michelle Obama's primetime speech. (3:17)
Full interview. (6:26)
Cynthia Tucker
Tavis: We're live here in Denver following the first night of the DNC convention, and as you can hear by the bustling all around us, we are right in the thick of things. Our home base all this week, the media pavilion here at the Pepsi Center. Some stirring moments here tonight, including the appearance of Senator Ted Kennedy.
But all eyes were on the prime time address by Michelle Obama.
[Clip]
Tavis: Pleased to be joined now by the editorial page editor for "The Atlanta Journal Constitution," Cynthia Tucker. Cynthia, nice to see you again.
Cynthia Tucker: Good to be here, Tavis.
Tavis: Let me start by asking the obvious - how'd she do?
Tucker: She did great.
Tavis: Yeah.
Tucker: I thought she hit it out of the ballpark, I really did. I was a little worried about her having to follow Ted Kennedy, because that was such a powerful, sentimental moment in the hall. But I thought she did exactly what she needed to do, which was to humanize herself.
And that may seem an odd thing to say, but the fact of the matter is she's had this odd image in some places that she's angry, that she's hard, that she someone isn't a real American, and I thought she planted herself very firmly in family.
She talked about her own family, her own upbringing. She talked about her father - this is a Black woman who was reared by two parents, a working class family. She talked about the fact that she and her brother had to share a bedroom. She talked about her mother. She talked about her parents repeatedly. I thought that was very strong, thematically, and of course she cast it forward to talk about her own family - her husband and her two daughters. And that was what she needed to do, and I thought she did it very well.
Tavis: Let me ask what some might regard as an impolitic question, but I think it's a real question, and you and I were starting to get into some conversation about it before we came on the air here. It remains to be seen, obviously - we will know for sure, obviously, November the 4th - but even if America is ready for Barack Obama, are they ready for his Black wife and for his Black kids running around the White House?
Tucker: I think that's an excellent question, and may I be politically incorrect as well and say she looked fantastic tonight, and that that matters. It may - I will certainly, or you will hear from some viewers who will say, "I can't believe she talked about that." But let's face it - the first lady is the nation's official hostess, and in many ways that is an even more dramatic break with tradition than having a Black president.
She's a working mother. Like Hillary Clinton, she is an Ivy League educated attorney, and remember that having Hillary Clinton have that sort of identity in the White House was a problem for some Americans. On top of that, Michelle Obama is African American. She is dark-skinned. Her children often wear braids.
And so for all of the reasons that we don't talk about very much but are there back in many Americans' subconscious minds, that's huge. That's a big break. And so we'll know, too, whether Americans are ready for that. But I think Michelle Obama presented herself very well, and she proved that she is capable of being the official hostess for the nation.
Tavis: To you point now, though, because there's a duality here. On the one hand, you're right - the first lady is the official hostess, if I could use your phrase. On the other hand, to your point about Hillary Clinton, we got more than that, like it or loathe it, agree or disagree, for better or worse - pick your poison - Hillary Clinton gave us more, to your point earlier of her being a lawyer and very much involved in the policies of the White House and policy direction of the White House and sitting in on meetings and an office in the West Wing.
How can we forget all that brouhaha about where her office was going to be inside the White House? I come back to your point now to ask whether or not - after Hillary Clinton we of course get Laura Bush.
Tucker: Right.
Tavis: So is the country now comfortable with having gone back to the Laura Bush model, which is I don't get involved in the politics, or are we ready for Hillary plus, if you will, this time around?
Tucker: Well quite frankly, I think it would be very difficult for a Black woman to assert herself on both fronts. Too much change for the country, if you will. And Michelle Obama has always been very clear that she doesn't intend to have a policy role in the White House, and I don't think she's just being quiet about it or being surreptitious about it. I think she means that.
Clearly she's one of her husband's closest advisers. He ought to call on her; she's a very bright and accomplished woman. But she has two very young children, and she has been very clear that her first duty will be to see to it, as she has put it, that they keep their heads on straight if her husband is elected to the White House. And I think that's just fine.
I think that Hillary Clinton has been groundbreaking in many ways, including in the fact that she made clear that she wanted a policy role in her husband's administration. But if you're going to have the first Black first lady, I think it would be too much to ask that Americans also accept her in a policy position.
Tavis: Before I let you go, let me ask you right quick - you mentioned earlier Ted Kennedy, and it's a hard act to follow tonight. Kennedy was so powerful, so moving inside the hall. If I could put it this way - we all have to go this way at some point. Ted Kennedy clearly is dancing with mortality.
Tucker: Absolutely.
Tavis: How do you contextualize what we saw tonight? Was this is swan song?
Tucker: I think this is clearly his last convention. I was thinking of "The Lion in Winter." The old lion roars again, perhaps for the last time. He made very clear that he intends to be there in January, on the floor of the Senate, with a President Obama.
We don't know whether that will happen or not - many of us hope it will. But it was great to see him tonight, and it was also very clear to me he was not going to let this opportunity pass by. If he could get out there, he was going to get out there and speak.
Tavis: Well, I wouldn't let this opportunity pass me by without you coming to see us, so thank you for always coming by, and thanks for your insight. Cynthia Tucker of "The Atlanta Journal Constitution."
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