Michelle Obama played it safe tonight. Gone was the sassy campaigner I remember seeing in Iowa and South Carolina.
The aim of the speech was to introduce Michelle Obama to the public and to dispel the idea of her as an angry, divisive figure. On that score, it worked.
Michelle Obama sounded both humble and proud of her country—the opposite of how her critics portray her. By talking about her father, she was able to emphasise his commitment to work and self-reliance, one of the key American values. Describing how he coped with MS, she said simply that he “woke up a little earlier and worked a little harder.”
Her main theme was how Barack’s desire to see the world as it should be not as it is was what attracted her to him. It brought her to the emotional high point of the speech, although if truth be told the passage was relatively devoid of substance:
“That is the thread that connects our hearts. That is the thread that runs through my journey and Barack’s journey and so many other improbable journeys that have brought us here tonight, where the current of history meets this new tide of hope.
That is why I love this country.”
After Michelle had finished the speech with a God bless America, the Obama children joined her on stage and Barack via video-link. What followed was a little sickly, but went down well in the hall and—so I’m told—on TV.
The decision by the Obama campaign to take no risks with Michelle’s speech, meant that it was not as compelling as it could be. But it did do the valuable work of preventing the stereotype of her from gaining further traction.
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