How do you rate Melania Trump out of 10? Feel free to use your own criteria and give your reasons for your rating.
Iu2019m choosing to answer your question in rating Melania Trump as a First Lady, in comparison to the others Iu2019ve observed in my life time, and according to my idea of how a First Lady should be:I would give Melania Trump an 8 out of 10 for her job performance as First Lady.To me, a First Lady is supposed to be a model for the virtues that women whose husbands hold high office are expected to display. These are based on the very traditional role of such women in the British Empire, and in the United States, particularly in the military and diplomatic circles.On some occasions the First Lady would be the only woman of her country many of the native people would ever meet, she was expected to be a 24 hour PR exhibit of her countryu2019s womanhood.In the military, she represented all the mothers and sisters and wives the men had left behind, the home she created stood for the homes the men remembered and longed to return to and was a stand-in for her countryu2019s idea of u201chomeu201d.To be an excellent First Lady, a woman has to be the personification of well-bred good manners. She has to exude dignity, respect for her role, and respect for her husbandu2019s office. Somehow, she also has to be able to express warmth, and a caring, generous nature. She needs to epitomize good taste, and entertain flawlessly. Like Caeseru2019s wife, she must be beyond reproach in every public appearance. No matter what happens between her and her husband, she must appear to be utterly supportive of him.Melania has all of it u2024 she is always perfectly turned out for the role she plays that day, and her taste, and her sense of occasion are excellent.Amazingly, she can be the wife of the most powerful man on earth at one moment and melt at the sight of a child the next. She can dress for a meeting with the Pope or a Saudi king or a visit to a hurricane deluged Texas town. There is no possible way that Melania is acting when she is reading a story to a group of 8 year-olds, nor when she is the courteous hostess to the French Presidentu2019s wife.Her first, and so far only State Dinner was applauded for seeming intimate as well as splendid, the guestlist, determined by her husband and his aids, was much smaller than such dinners usually are, so she made the most of seating people at tables of four instead of the usual enormous banquet table.Her use of tiny white lights and blue spotlights to make a wonderland of the White House for Christmas was a triumph of taste also.I need to make the point here, that I refuse to listen to the MSM when evaluating Melaniau2019s efforts. They loathe her husband and detest her, there is no way in which they could ever be fair to her, and they have savagely critical. Fortunately, the are others in Washington who are capable of being fairer. I listen to them.Iu2019ve detracted a point from Melania for the appearance of coolness between her and her husband when the Stormy Daniels story was being bruited about, that was a time when she should have gone out of her way to appear to not believe a word of what the press was so interested in, and she missed her opportunity.Iu2019m also taking a point away for not moving into the White House immediately after the inauguration. Yes, it would have entailed taking her son out of school, but for a while her husband appeared to be abandoned. It was not a good look for him.In comparison, I would give Michelle Obama four points. She loses points for some of horrible fashion picks u2024 she had her own website showing photo after photo of her wearing clothes that made her look enormous, or wearing extreme clothing much too young for her, or descending from Air Force One wearing cutoffs and with her hair pinned up. More embarrassingly, she appeared on the Huckabee show wearing a thin jersey dress that clearly showed the outline of her nipples! And there are always the pictures that show her appearing to have a penis under her dresses.Besides her fashion taste, Michelle lost points with me for constantly taking expensive vacations, usually away from the United States. Not only were the sites extravagant, she always took a whole crowd of people with her, letting the tax payers pay for their transportation and security while there. Several of these jaunts were taken when the Great Recession was at itu2019s worst, when people were being laid off, losing their homes, and their faith in America. Michelle could not possibly have been more indifferent.Finally, Michelle constantly let the US know that she despised us. She felt that she should have been paid for the u201cjobu201d of being First Lady, she criticized this country for being overweight, for being racist, for itu2019s long traditions to do with the White House, and for what we expected of our First Lady. Though she seemed to expect the adulation and respect that has always been part of being the First Lady, she disdained the fact that she was living in a magnificent, historical house with a full staff of servants paid for by the tax payers.Laura Bush gets a seven. No one could ever find a single misstep she made in treating her guests with courtesy, or being properly dressed for occasions, or for loving her country.In fact, I fault her mainly for her blandness, the lack of glamor and sophistication of the Bush White House.I also fault her for taking no risks as First Lady. Her campaign on literacy was so safe, so predictable u2024 so boring.Although Laura Bush was a great help meet for her husband, she never used her enormous power as First Lady to do a single controversial thing.
