I thought Michelle was pitch-perfect (although I could have done with about five minutes less of her older brother- seriously with the basketball metaphors for leading the free world?) and delivered the exact speech called for by the occasion. Hearing such a bright and accomplished woman talk exclusively about her role as a wife and mother is a little demoralizing, but given the demands on her to prove her family's apple pie credentials, I understand the political necessity.
I'm more than a little cranky with CNN, though - after three hours of yammering through every convention speaker, Wolf, Anderson & Co. pronounced the evening's events disappointing. Lucky that I have them to tell me so! Goodness knows I wouldn't have been able to make that call myself, having heard neither Claire McCaskill, Jim Leach, nor hardly any of the other prime time speakers.
I would agree, though, with their analysis that we need to see a lot more Bush-McCain baiting red meat. A lot of what I did see last night left me with a sinking feeling of deja-vu of 2004's convention, when the "Sunshine Boys" put the kibbosh on Bush-bashing, creating a feel-good uplift promptly shattered by the GOP orgy of negativity in New York City a few weeks later. Fightin' Joe, we're counting on you...
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Perhaps I’ve spent too much time today reading every criticism/praise of Michelle’s speech, but thank to people much smarter than myself I’ve decided that I agree with the following assessments:
•Clive Crook on the annoyingly broad definition of public service and the almost gratuitous use of the precious Obama daughters
•The New Republic on why the first lady speech must go away.
•Salon’s Rebecca Traister on how it’s all in the delivery (“On paper, Obama's speech was so aggressively comforting, so just-folksy, so daughterly and wifely and motherly, that it made Nancy Reagan sound like an ambitious hussy with a wandering eye.”)
Essentially, sentimentality – especially the kind that rests on having children and a family to provide for – are wholly lost on me, to the point where I discredit those that are genuinely moved by these things. This is probably my fault though and I doubt Michelle Obama took into account my demographic (because it IS all about me) when outlining her objectives of the speech.
I’ll stop complaining – she spoke what was both true and necessary and seemed quite earnest about it.
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