In the first major address at the Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama described herself as a daughter, a sister, a wife and a mother, no different from many women. She told a cheering crowd waving signs reading "Michelle" that she and her husband, the possible next president of the United States, feel an obligation to "fight for the world as it should be" to ensure the promise of a better life for their daughters and all children. Michelle Obama declared "I love this country" as she sought to reassure the nation that she and her husband share Americans' bedrock values and belief in a dream of a better future.
She was introduced by her brother, Craig Robinson, the head basketball coach at Oregon State University. Robinson noted that she memorized every episode of "The Brady Bunch" and praised her passion for helping others. Robinson also offered a political analysis of Barack Obama's basketball skills: "He's a team player who improves the people around him, and he won't back down from any challenge."
The speech showed an American family, an appealing American family, an ordinary American family (or as ordinary a family can be in which one member is running for president.) Michelle Obama's job was to show voters they have nothing to fear. “The Barack Obama I know today is the same man I fell in love with 19 years ago,” she said. “He’s the same man who drove me and our new baby daughter home from the hospital 10 years ago this summer, inching along at a snail’s pace, peering anxiously at us in the rearview mirror, feeling the whole weight of her future in his hands.” Some in the audience could be seen crying a bit as she spoke.
She was describing a simple moment, a real moment, an emotional moment and one that made only one point: Senator Barack Obama is a human being just like you. He is not an “other,” he is not a “celebrity.” He is a father, a husband, a person. Michelle went on: “And as I tuck that little girl and her little sister into bed at night, I think about how one day, they’ll have families of their own. And one day, they, and your sons and daughters, will tell their own children about what we did together in this election. They’ll tell them how this time, we listened to our hopes instead of our fears. How this time, we decided to stop doubting and to start dreaming.”
Michelle Obama didn't explicitly address race, but allaying concerns among white voters was part of the strategy for the first Black nominee of a major party. "Barack doesn't care where you're from, or what your background is, or what party, if any, you belong to. That's not how he sees the world," she said. "He knows that thread that connects us — our belief in America's promise, our commitment to our children's future — is strong enough to hold us together as one nation even when we disagree." She also described her husband's upbringing by a single mother and grandparents who "scrimped and saved so that he could have opportunities they never had themselves."
Michelle Obama did hit the campaign’s talking points, carefully praising Hillary Clinton, “who put those 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling, so that our daughters, and our sons, can dream a little bigger and aim a little higher.“ And also Joe Biden, “who’s never forgotten where he came from, and never stopped fighting for folks who work long hours and face long odds and need someone on their side again.” But she made the speech hers, and she made it a great one.
Afterward, their daughters, Sasha and Malia, joined her on stage as Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely" blared from the convention hall. The girls began smiling and waving at their father after his familiar face popped up on a large screen on stage. "How about that Michelle Obama?" Barack Obama said, "You were unbelievable." And then something followed that is virtually unheard of at a political convention: an unscripted moment. In the live video hookup with Barack, who was in Kansas City, the two Obama daughters, Malia and Sasha, who had joined their mother on stage, simply talked to their father. He asked them how they thought their mother had done in her speech. “I think she did good,” Sasha said. “I think so, too,” Malia said. And then Malia said, “We love you, Daddy.” And Sasha said, “We love you, Daddy. Bye.”
In Kansas City, reporters asked him how it felt to watch his wife. During the speech, and a biographical video shown before she spoke, Senator Obama occasionally wiped his eyes. "She was unbelievable. But I'm not surprised. When she does something, she does it well," he said of Michelle. "She told her story. It's a story that a lot of families can relate to. Her dad struggled, worked hard. And here, his daughter, is addressing the nation."
Senator Barack Obama closes the convention Thursday night with his acceptance speech at Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium.
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