“[O]ur motto is, when they go low, we go high.”
— Michelle Obama, 1 August 2016
First lady of the nation,
We didn't temper what we said
But spoke sans reservation,
Our words off-color tactical
To help the party win,
For it would be impractical
To seem like caving in:
Republicans are sterner stuff
The image we conveyed
So if our language sounded gruff
It was an honest trade.
We labeled her “a monkey in
High heels”— it fed the troops,
Our loyal voters: it was “spin.”
There was no saying oops.
So now the party takes great pride
In denigrating women
With a vocabulary wide,
Old epithets grown common.
What is the virtue to pretend
A woman’s not a sex thing?
Elections may on this depend;
It's neither wrong nor vexing.
She oughtn’t take it personal,
Michelle Obama, no:
It's obvious she went too high,
We won by going low.