The usually smart and reliable Blake Hounshell over at Passport, Foreign Policy magazine’s blog, appears to have gone completely insane.  Or he’s got such a bad case of Obama fever, he’s hallucinating.

Today, he credited Condoleezza Rice for paving the way for Michelle Obama’s speech last night:

Watching Michelle, I couldn’t help but think that she might also have given a shout-out to Condoleezza Rice. Isn’t it likely that Americans, accustomed to seeing an assertive African-American woman on TV every night for the past seven years, are more comfortable with Michelle Obama as a result? After Michelle’s speech, Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann of MSNBC were marveling at the fact that six years ago, it would have been hard to imagine an African-American family up on the stage as a possible first family. For that, the Obamas may have Rice to thank.

This is one of the dumbest things I’ve read all week.  Does Hounshell not realize just how patronizing it sounds to suggest that Americans needed to see an “assertive African-American woman on TV every night” in order to accept Michelle Obama?

Hounshell might want to brush up on his history.  Just off the top of my head, here’s a list of sixteen women who had more to do with Michelle being up that stage than Condoleeza Rice.  All are, to use his lovely turn of phrase, “assertive African-American women.”

Marian Anderson

Maya Angelou

Shirley Chisholm

Marian Wright Edelman

Fannie Lou Hamer

Dorothy Height

Zora Neale Hurston

Barbara Jordan

Coretta Scott King

Toni Morrison

Diane Nash

Rosa Parks

Wilma Rudolph

Mamie Till

Sojourner Truth

Harriet Tubman

Oprah Winfrey

That took me five minutes.  Hounshell may want to take that much time before making a similar suggestion in the future.

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