"No Hope"

First Lady Michelle Obama, appearing on Oprah recently, commented that "now we are feeling what not having hope feels like."

Really, Madam First Lady?

Were you not so out of touch with most of America, you might know that the first post-election print of the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index posted a 6.6-point jump from the previous reading.  The index reached its sixth-highest level since your husband was elected President in 2008.  Consumers sure look hopeful.

You might also know that the equity markets have been on a tear since the election, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average tickling 20,000 for the first time in history.  The Dow posted 17 record closes in the 32 trading days after the election, and is up nearly 9% since then.  Also, the Wells Fargo/Gallup Investor and Retirement Optimism Index, which polls small investors, reached the highest point a week after the election since before your husband was elected President.  Investors - large and small - sure look hopeful.

I haven't been out Christmas shopping this year; recovering from hernia surgery tends to keep one house-bound.  However, a PwC poll covering the holiday shopping season found that consumers, on average, plan to spend about 10% more this year than last, and consumers with household incomes less than $50,000 plan to increase spending more than consumers overall.  So holiday shoppers sure look hopeful - even those of limited means.

Millions of Americans are hopeful that their health insurance premiums will go down, or at least not continue to increase at an astronomical rate.  Taxpayers are hopeful that they'll get to take home more of their hard-earned pay, and that the legacy of government over-spending may finally end.  Small businesses are hopeful that they won't continue to be strangled by regulatory excess.

If you really want to see what not having hope looks like, Madam First Lady, might I suggest you look at the footage coming out of Aleppo recently.  Tragically, most people there have lost hope, as your husband's "red line" disappeared like the scrawling on one of those Magic Slate things some of us had as kids, where you lift the clear plastic sheet, and voila, the lines you drew are gone.

Or pay a visit to Africa - not for a photo op, as your husband did when he visited his grandmother in Kenya, but to spend time among people living in impoverished conditions.  My own experiences in Africa have taught me that many people there do have hope, because they place their hope in God, not in some politician.

And that brings us to an important point: the sheer arrogance of someone actually suggesting that the people's hope derives from who occupies the White House is pretty amazing.  Just because you bandy the word about as a campaign slogan doesn't mean you've cornered the market on hope.

Especially when, after eight years, you've failed to deliver on the change that was supposed to justify that hope.

Beyond the self-serving silliness of Mrs. Obama's claim looms the question: why is she making the claim, at this moment in time, to begin with?  Her husband has publicly pledged to work to ensure a smooth and orderly transition of power, adding, "We are all rooting for [Trump's] success in uniting and leading the country."

But there's another message being transmitted, by Press Secretary Josh Earnest, who has made numerous public anti-Trump comments since the election, and then this from Mrs. Obama, who apparently isn't among those rooting for Trump's success in uniting the country.  Instead, her statements are working against those efforts.

Mrs. Obama claimed in a campaign speech for Hillary Clinton, "When they go low, we go high."

Indeed.