If I had my druthers, Michelle Obama would be the nominee for president of the Democratic Party. That’s not a knock on Kamala Harris, but an expression of my unbounded admiration and trust in Michelle’s political talent, experience, worldview and character. I’ve often said that the two best orators in America are married to each other and Barack is in second place. That proved true again last night at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, as the former president delivered what would ordinarily be considered a great speech, except that it was completely overshadowed by the speech by his wife which preceded it.
This was true even on the moral plane. Barack had his moments, particularly when he talked about people siloing themselves behind their phones, looking for approval from strangers, and then wondering why they’re so lonely. But Michelle spoke with total moral clarity and complete confidence in her authority and credibility. She was the clear leader of the convention and the party in ways that Barack and Hillary Clinton sometimes approached but never matched.
It’s astonishing that she has never run for office nor had a full-time public speaking job and that she can just walk up to a microphone in a sold-out arena in front of tens of millions of worldwide television viewers, and speak flawlessly and with unmatched timing and skill. And that doesn’t even get into the brilliant content of her speeches, which shows her collaborative skill with the writers.
Alas, she wants no part of running for public office, and I can’t blame her. And, yet, her aversion to the whole process just makes her effortless mastery of it all the more spectacular. By the time she was done, Democrats were ready to run through walls for Kamala Harris, and no doubt volunteerism will go through the roof over the 76 days remaining in the campaign.
A lot of the coverage will understandably focus on her digs at Donald Trump and her shift in tone from her previous “They go low, we go high” message, but the real heart of her theme asked us to be good to each other and not follow those who seek to divide us for their own cynical and selfish reasons. And it was a call to arms for people to “do something” rather than just observe and complain. She asked us not to seek or expect perfection in our leaders. We should have high standards, but we can’t get distracted or sidetracked by minor disagreements.
In the end, she spoke to the dread so many of us have felt about the future ever since Trump took power in 2017 and began setting us against each other and destroying everything he touched. We’re on the cusp of ending the era, and “If we start feeling tired, if we start feeling that dread creeping back in, we’ve got to pick ourselves up, throw water on our faces, and do something,”
It was a home run of a speech, and I’m so grateful that our country has a moral leader like Michelle.
100%. After her speech, I donated more to the campaign and figured out how I could do more phone banking during my week than I have already. She was and is amazing.
I bet your reaction was duplicated all over the country, including by people who were previously doing nothing.
We had our monthly county party executive committee meeting last night. The place was packed, double the number we normally see. A whole lot of new faces and people volunteering to do all sorts of stuff, so many for the very first time. We ran out of chairs, and people were standing. I have not seen anything like this since 2008. We had a rep from Sherrod Brown’s campaign and Congressman Greg Landsman’s campaign there, and people were signing up to help with their coordinated campaign efforts. People are feeling this, even in this red county. Donations are up, with some people coming out of the woodwork with significant, first time donations. Things were pretty electric. It was great to see.
Thank you, MikeInOhio, a thousand times over, for the work you are doing in your community.
To me the most clear message from her was to anticipate that not everything will be as rosy as in the convention. There will be some downs, but we must keep our minds focused on the prize, and work through the turbulence.
I also hope sometime in the future, she would consider her turn given how much remains to be done. But in case she does not, I came away convinced the Democratic bench is deep and very strong. I had hoped it would be Mayor Pete for her running mate, but now am convinced Walz is the best choice. Pete should stay in and gain experience in some orthogonal area – like defense or foreign affairs. I was less impressed with Kelly. Shapiro was also very good, but might need a little more federal experience.
The female bench is also deep and strong, and perhaps Kamala’s turn at the wheel will make the paths easier for the likes of Whitmer (though personally I was less impressed by her speech).
Hillary did a good speech – but she ran a very poor campaign in 2016 – choosing Kaine as her running partner, taking on the dregs from Bill’s campaign (Podesta brothers) and very flawed campaign trail. Now with Bill’s voice gone, and his B- speech, it is time for the Clintons to retire from the spotlight. My personal opinion, YMMV.
The other thing I liked about the convention was bringing on several Republican speakers – we need to get some fraction of the 71M voters who voted for the doofus in 2016. Even if we can get 10% of those back in the next few cycles, we can get rid of this nonsensical party.
I have often said that Trump will be the fining agent for the Republican party (in wine making, minute amounts of egg whites or other agents are added to precipitate any residual particulate matter).
Since Nixon’s criminality and Lee Atwater’s southern strategy, it has been accumulating crud all along – Nixon’s secret Iran hostage negotiation, Iran-Contra-Ollie-North affair, Papa Bush’s Willie Horton ads, then came TurdBlossom and Darth Cheney to complete the muck. Hopefully the country will reduce the party to be shut out of power for a while.
Will a more principled conservative party arise from the ashes of this Trump cult? That story is still being written, but at least the preface is now clear!
She was awesome!
Leave her be.
The Carters were a great example of being an ex-President and spouse. The Clintons went a bit over the top with their Global Initiative. Bush should just keep painting. And the groups hosted at some other president’s libraries speaks volumes.