It’s 2012. You’d think we, as a culture, would be beyond trying to shoe-horn every first lady into a prefab gilded cage where she’s seen and not heard in a voice above a whisper. But we’re not. If a first lady (yes, I’d love for there to be a first gentleman in my lifetime but thus far, no dice) does indeed like the “traditional” role of a demure lady who lunches, bully for her. Go for it, embrace it. But if she’s not, she ought to gird herself to be crucified, while we, as a nation, are content to waste her talent because we just want her to tell us about the White House Christmas tree and shut up about policy.

Over and over again in The Obamas, Michelle Obama’s difficulties with being confined by another era’s notion of “first-lady land,” were chronicled, particularly in a chapter which Kantor pointedly called, “The Lady Who Did Not Lunch.” When Barack Obama finally won enough delegates to secure the Democratic nomination for president in 2008, his advisers pressed his wife to transform herself from the strong, accomplished, career-oriented mom of two into . . . something that she wasn’t. Kantor quoted an unnamed adviser - there were many loose-lipped, unnamed advisers gabbing in this book -- describing the “new Michelle” that was unveiled for the general election where the campaign had her appear on morning TV shows to chat about food and pantyhose. “We went into a little fluff,” the aide said, “a more traditional role.” The aide said the goal was to transform Michelle Obama into the beloved, fictional Claire Huxtable.

Once Barack Obama was elected, Michelle Obama’s offers to utilize her experience from working at the University of Chicago Medical Center to help the administration’s push for health care reform was rebuffed. She was relegated to a world of compulsory tea cups and china patterns. “. . . [S]he was especially dissatisfied with her part in the administration,” Kantor revealed. “. . . [S]he felt ignored by her husband’s advisers and undersupplied with resources . . . Whatever little structure the role carried was dictated by a series of mandatory events.”

White House aides, Kantor was told, became irritated and vocal when the first lady would buck their attempts to commit her to events and to campaign for people without even consulting her office. “If [first ladies] refused to go [to events], political aides sometimes saw them as high maintenance, unwilling to help with key tasks and willing to disappoint supporters; if they always said yes, they lost independence and control, precious commodities for any political spouse,” Kantor said. Who could blame Michelle Obama for getting steamed that she was used as a prop, a mere pawn, without the courtesy of her husband’s underlings treating her like a fellow professional?