Michelle brings party together
So don’t let anyone ever tell you that this country isn’t great, that somehow we need to make it great again. Because this, right now, is the greatest country on earth.
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, Democratic National Convention.
When Democrats rolled into Philadelphia last week, they arrived in two distinct camps.
There were those who felt the “Bern,” and those who didn’t.
That set the stage for an opening day of the Democratic National Convention that revealed widespread disharmony within the party.
While Republicans had left Cleveland with some semblance of unity (minus Ted Cruz), Democrats had hoped to avoid showing any kind of public discord.
That didn’t happen.
The first day of the convention was highlighted by large protests in the streets, and speakers struggling to be heard over the constant chorus of boos on stage at the Wells Fargo Center.
In the morning, DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Shultz had resigned in the controversy over those leaked DNC emails.
There were signs that indicated that some Democrats could never cheer for a unified Democratic Party.
Distrust, you understand, is a nasty, turbulent thing.
Then came Michelle Obama.
When Mrs. Obama stepped on stage, the boos subsided, and she proceeded to give a speech that not only produced near-unanimous praise outside of the hall, it produced real unity within it.
Keep in mind that one week earlier, Donald Trump’s wife, Melania, had given her opening night speech.
The one thing that Melania Trump and Michelle Obama have in common is that they both use Michelle Obama’s words very well.
Mrs. Obama had a mission on Monday night. She went there to show her admiration for Hillary Clinton.
She did that well, and so much more.
There were verbal pin pricks aimed at Melania’s husband, too.
“Someone who understands that the issues a President faces are not black and white and cannot be boiled down to 140 characters,” wasn’t the only veiled jab at Twitter-happy Donald Trump.
She, like many Americans, are aware of Trump’s past history of trying to delegitimize her husband with his disturbing birther campaign.
And she’s aware of the fact that her two daughters, Sasha and Melia, may have been deeply troubled by Trump’s unwillingness to accept that their father is the duly elected president of the United States of America.
“(How) we insist that the hateful language they hear from public figures on TV does not represent the true spirit of this country. How we explain that when someone is cruel, or acts like a bully, you don’t stoop to their level – no, our motto is, when they go low, we go high,” she said as the Wells Fargo Center exploded in applause.
If you’ve paid any attention to her, you must certainly know that Michelle Obama is not a vindictive woman. She’s poised, passionate and she just wouldn’t seem comfortable settling scores.
She exudes the confidence to put her, and her family’s time in the White House in its proper historical perspective.
“That is the story of this country, the story that has brought me to this stage tonight. The story of generations of people who felt the lash of bondage, the shame of servitude, the sting of segregation, but who kept on striving and hoping and doing what needed to be so that today, I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves,” she said.
And she added, “And I watch my daughters – two beautiful, intelligent, black young women – playing with their dogs on the White House lawn.”
There have been times when every move Michelle Obama has made has been placed under a cruel political microscope.
But last Monday night, that would have been might hard to do. She appeared in strong support of Hillary Clinton, and she stood the chance of facing a large crowd that didn’t want to hear any of that.
By the time she walked off stage – after uttering the words, “This, right now, is the greatest country on earth,” she’d won the night and quelled a major storm.
Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net