290 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biographybecome. We have a chance, not just to make history, but we can change the world. We can
change the world - yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can... (Michelle
Obama at UCLA, February 15, 2008)^141
Several sayings in this are notable here. First of all, Michelle effectively evokes the real
problems of the inadequate healthcare and other material privations which have been and are the
last of the American people on there for decades of overall reactionary Republican domination. But
it is equally striking that she does not propose any concrete measures to deal with these problems in
the real world. If anything, she rather argues that it is impossible to solve these problems in the
world the way it is presently constituted. Her line is that solving social problems and economic
problems is impossible, because our souls are defective. So this means that we cannot solve any
problems until we proceed to a complete reformation of the human personality itself. This is what
she means when she raises the issue of broken souls. How then should the human personality be
reformed, in Michelle’s opinion? The reference to turning away from Wall Street seems to indicate
that a de-emphasis of materialism in favor of spiritual benefits is required. We need to give up our
cynicism and think about the poor, she says. Naturally, all of this sententious advice stands in the
sharpest contrast to the greed, rapacity, and social climbing of Michelle and Barky, who have
become rich by working for the foundations, and by serving the corrupt Chicago political machine.
But few of the excitable lemmings attending an Obama rally will have any idea about that. Rather,
Michelle goes on to claim that Barky has an absolute monopoly on the path to salvation: he is the
only anointed one whose touch can heal and repair the broken souls of the people. There is the
strong implication that the process of fixing the broken souls is a painful process which will require
some kind of sacrifice, most likely in the form of economic austerity. But not only austerity:
Obama, she warns, will require that the population be kept in a constant state of mobilization and
activity in the service of the transformation which he means to initiate. These are the main features
of a process which will need to a complete utopian transformation of the world. At this point, the
crowd intervenes with chanting, in the best Mussolini-D’Annunzio tradition.
Let us now illustrate some of these aspects of Michelle’s standard speech by citing formulations
she has used on other occasions. The standard stump speech must necessarily very slightly from
place to place, and these differences of formulation will give us a further opportunity to see what
Michelle has in mind. The uniqueness of Obama as a savior (or Mahdi) is a constant feature. Here
is one journalistic account: ‘Michelle Obama declared that her husband is a needed anecdote to a
troubled nation torn by war and struggles for opportunity. “Before we can fix our problems, we
have to fix our souls,” she said. “Our souls are broken in this nation. We have lost our way. And it
begins with leadership. It begins with inspiration.” And: “Barack Obama will require you to work.
He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you
come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zone... Barack will never allow you
to go back to your lives as usual - uninvolved, uninformed.”’^142
Obama always appears as the source of transfiguration and beatification of the drab, isolated,
and alienated individual lives of his followers, even though this process is accompanied by forms of
pain and sacrifice. Here is the same motif in a slightly different form: “We need to fix our souls,”
she said. “Our souls are broken in this nation. We have lost our way. And it begins with inspiration.
It begins with leadership.” And again, in yet another variation: “Before we can fix our problems, we
have to fix our souls...our souls are broken. It begins with LEADERSHIP. This race is about
CHARACTER. I am married to the only person in this race who has a chance of healing this
Nation.” (Michelle Obama, February 3, 2008)