Why Michelle Obama resonates with America
OPINION - For black women in particular, Mrs. Obama is an object of particular pride; someone you never dreamed you'd see living in the White House...
When she spoke of Barack Obama’s family being just like her own, not in terms of ethnic blend but in terms of their values and beliefs, she pointed to a fundamental aspect of the American experience: the way people from all sorts of backgrounds find a commonality in being American.
When she talked about her dad, who had multiple sclerosis but struggled every day to stand up in front of the mirror and shave, and to put on his uniform, so that he wouldn’t miss a day of his job as a pump operator at a Chicago water plant; or Obama’s grandmother working as a bank secretary, but hitting a glass ceiling simply because she was a woman, the images are instantly recognizable to most people, no matter what their politics.
“I think she depoliticized the political season,” said Marlon Hill, who watched the speech from the floor of the arena as a Florida delegate. “She returned us to the everyday values Americans believe in.”
In some ways, though, the speech was very much a work of politics.
In it, Michelle Obama managed to contrast her and the president’s humble roots and prototypical American love story with the aristocratic courtship of the Romneys at an exclusive Massachusetts boarding school, without ever mentioning them by name. Her story of student loans and parents who sometimes had to take out loans to pay their share of her and her brother’s tuition, were a subtle rebuke to Mitt Romney’s admonition to struggling students to just “ask your parents for a loan.”
When she talked about the president believing that “when you’ve worked hard, and done well, and walked through that doorway of opportunity…you do not slam it shut behind you…you reach back, and you give other folks the same chances that helped you succeed, she socked the Romney-Paul Ryan brand of 1-percenter economics without ever throwing a punch. It was deft, it was subtle, and for an apolitical speech, it was a masterstroke of political savvy.
For daily convention coverage, follow Joy Reid on Twitter at @thereidreport
You Might Like
