AMERICA
Da
E
I
L
OF
PR y and Night with
She’s president of the Independent
Women’s Forum. And an MSNBC
pundit. And a lawyer. And a mom.
So of course her commuter-train
travels are at high speed.
By Meredith Nelson
I
T’S THE NIGHT BEFORE HISTORY IN THE MAKING, AND
Michelle Bernard is wired.
“I might fi nd it hard to fall asleep tonight,” she
says between sips of champagne. The hotel lounge in the
Renaissance New York is dim and mostly quiet, a wel-
come break from the bus-
tle of Times Square a few
blocks down Broadway.
The street below beats
with excitement on the
eve of Election Day 2008.
High above the throbbing
neon and mega video
panels on the iconic One
Times Square, a single
sign screams in block red
letters: “VOTE.”
Bernard, a Washington, D.C., native who still lives
there, looks right at home at this high time in Manhattan.
Striking in a simple black dress and close to 6 feet tall in
leopard-print boots with heels, she defi nes telegenic. It’s
a good thing she is amped up; she’s only 15 hours into
WOMAN ABOUT WORLD
what could be back-to-back all-nighters. “I have so much
Michelle Bernard counts
adrenaline,” she says.
on adrenaline as a political
It’s hard to imagine that, at 6:30 a.m. that day, Michelle
leader who often meets
with dignitaries and VIPs.
Bernard, president of the conservative Independent
Women’s Forum and one of the most recognizable faces
in the pantheon of today’s cable news opinion makers,
was simply doing the mom thing 200 miles from the Big M
ichelle Bernard exudes infectious optimism and
a ferocious adherence to the Forum’s core prin-
Apple. She dutifully got her kids, Logan, 5, and Avery, 3, ciples of limited government, free markets, and personal
dressed and ready for school, then turned them over to responsibility. A self-described “glass-half-full” kind of
her mother before packing for New York. person, she’s the author of Women’s Progress: How
OUNG/REUTERS
She darted into her offi ce, did a quick interview with Women are Wealthier, Healthier, and More Independent
JIM Y
France24 on the difference between the images of femi- Than Ever Before. She attributes her attitude and her
Y OF MICHELLE BERNARD
TES
nism that Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton project, and success to her upbringing. Her parents are hardworking
handled a few last-minute Forum business items. She Jamaican immigrants educated at Howard University in
/
C
OUR
GES / RICE/
T
O
was trying to wrap up before the kids got out of school. D.C. Her dad is an oral and maxillofacial surgeon, while
AP IMA
Such is the new face of feminism. her mom works in the development offi ce at Howard.
MAIN PHO BUSH/
20 NEWSMAX / JANUARY 2009
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