Michelle Obama’s Speech
by KevinAugust 26th, 2008
That was a very, very good speech. Despite the campaign ads and the talking heads nonsense, the Obama’s are an incredible, uniquely American story. They came form less than privileged backgrounds — no Admiral in the family to smooth the way for Barack, no rich daddy to make things easier for Michelle — and they worked very hard to be where they are. It is a remarkable, deeply American story that resonates, I think, with people who have had to work for a living, have had to struggle to get where they are in the world. Barack Obama, despite the opinion of the millionaire wignut welfare brigade, is as American as apple pie. Michelle Obama did a fantastic job reminding people of that last night.
But her speech was more than just that. When she talked about building the country that should be, she was getting to the heart of the campaign. John McCain really is just more of the same. he basically wants to continue the foreign policy and economic policies that the Bush Administration has followed for the last eight years. he thinks things are fine, with maybe a little tweaking. The country as it is, according to McCain, is basically as it should be. I don’t think that, obviously. hard work doe snot pay as it should. Our foreign policy is stupid and counter-productive. Discrimination of various forms are still a large problem. The rich are getting richer and everyone else is getting poorer. It is getting harder to send your kids to a doctor or to a college. The world should not be this way.
And it doesn’t have to. No matter how entrenched the interests seem to be, no matter how much money and political power the status quo has, not matter how long this predator state has been in existence, it does not have to be this way. It can be made to change. Bowing to a crown, keeping another man as a slave, holding a women in a house as a virtual child: at one time, men could say “that is the way the world is”. And now they represent the way the world was. It does not have to be this way. It is, I think, one of the most powerful notions in human events and the Obamas seem to understand that at a fundamental level. That, more than the stories of their lives, more than the genuine emotion with which Michelle talked about their past and their dreamed for future, more than even their adorable kids (okay, maybe not more than that), is what struck me about Michelle’s speech. Their lives have taught them that the worlkd is not as it should be and that we can do something about that.
“They came form less than privileged backgrounds — no Admiral in the family to smooth the way for Barack, no rich daddy to make things easier for Michelle — and they worked very hard to be where they are.”
Their story is certainly inspirational. Who could listen to Michelle without feeling a sense of pride and wonder? I especially liked the other featured speaker of the night who pulled himself up by his bootstraps to become a U.S. senator. He had no rich daddy or president brother to smooth the way for him. He made it all on his own. Senator Ted Kennedy is an example to all of us of how a person can have a humble beginning and yet rise to great prominence and political power. What a country!