Michelle Obama: Success and Failure KPFK 12/28/16

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Michelle Obama‘s greatest political moment came in October, when she spoke about Donald Trump’s Access Hollywood groping tape.  During the preceding eight years, she limited herself to campaigning against childhood obesity — but even on that seemingly innocuous feminine topic, she was defeated — by Big Food and agribusiness.  Amy Wilentz wrote about Michelle in 2008 for the Washington Post.

Also: Andrew Bacevich reviews eight years of Barack Obama’s wars and foreign policies, starting with Iran and Afghanistan and including cyberwar.  Bacevich wrote about the topic for The Nation’s special issue on “The Obama Years.”

And Harold Meyerson talks about Trump’s choice for secretary of labor — fast food exec Andy Puzder (or is it “Pudzer”?), who wants to replace workers with robots — and about what mainstream economists learned –too late — about the effects of free trade on the once-industrial midwest.  Harold wrote about it for The American Prospect, where he is executive editor.