Almost from her first appearance in the public eye, Michelle Obama has used clothing, etiquette, and such cues as where she shops and entertains to send out a subtle but radical message to American voters and to the world. For the first time since the days of Andrew Jackson, the White House is aggressively “democratizing” the highest office in the land, and symbolically inviting in the common man – and now the common woman.
这两个现象是紧密相连的。几乎从米歇尔·奥巴马第一次出现在公众面前开始，她就在利用服装、礼仪以及诸如在哪里购物和娱乐这样的暗示，向美国选民和世界传达出微妙而激进的信息。这是自安德鲁·杰克逊（Andrew Jackson）时代以来，白宫首次积极地“民主化”美国领土上的最高职务，并象征性地邀请普通男性和女性到白宫做客。