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2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumJoe Klein: About Last Night: Wow
http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/05/about-last-night-wow/About Last Night: Wow
By Joe Klein | @JoeKleinTIME | September 5, 2012
First lady Michelle Obama takes the stage before speaking on the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., on Sept. 4, 2012.
Callie Shell / for TIME
The streets and hotel corridors of Charlotte are still vibrating this morning after Michelle Obamas remarkable effort, the Democratic Partys remarkable opening convention night. There was just a quantum leap of energy from the tamped-down Tampa Republicans last week, real joy in the hall as opposed to the barely concealed anger that has tainted the Republican Party these past few years. And the message was clear:
{The President} reminds me that we are playing a long game here, and that change is hard, and change is slow, and it never happens all at once, {Michelle Obama} told the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. But eventually we get there. We always do.
snip//
My immediate boss, Nation Editor Michael Duffy, made a significant point this morning (editors are known, occasionally, to do that) about the rhetorical contrivance at the heart of the speech: The First Lady set herself up as the doubter, nervous about her new role, anxious about how the Presidency would change her husband and the lives of her children. But she was the one who had grown over the past four years, gaining a sense of the nature and importance of the mission. Her husband, by contrast, was calm, steady, reliable, unchanged by the office. Its not a new point, but when Michelle Obama said that the presidency reveals who you really are, the contrast to Mitt Romney was immediate and inevitable without her having to say itwe really dont know who Mitt Romney is, what he actually believes, whether hes the moderate who governed Massachusetts or the Tea Party toady who campaigned for the Republican nomination.
snip//
The Republicans have also demonized the Obamas, in blatant and subtle ways. Paul Ryans obnoxious line last week about him and Romney knowing what places like Wisconsin and Michigan are like during good times was countered by Michelle Obama talking about what it was like to grow up black and hopefuland responsible, and morally rigorousin Illinois in good times and bad. And the Republican We Built That individualism was countered by the First Lady saying that We know that when you walk through that door of opportunity, you dont slam it behind you. No, you reach back and help the next ones coming up.
I watched the speeches on television last night, as I almost always doits best to see them the way most people dobut reports from friends who were in the hall say the atmosphere was extraordinary and so I think Ill break my rule and go into the hall to listen to Bill Clinton tonight. Hes got a tough act to follow. But you know hes going to be worth the price of admission.
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Joe Klein: About Last Night: Wow (Original Post)
babylonsister
Sep 2012
OP
fleur-de-lisa
(14,628 posts)1. Best quote ever . . .
"We know that when you walk through that door of opportunity, you dont slam it behind you. No, you reach back . . . best quote ever!
applegrove
(118,807 posts)2. +100
Cha
(297,723 posts)3. And, by reports, FL Michelle wrote the
speech! She's such an inspiring person and she's our First Lady. I want 4 more years of her and that just as inspiring husband of hers.
magical thyme
(14,881 posts)4. the other best quote ever
Talking about when Obama could have made a lot of money but went into community service because he "doesn't measure success by how much money you make, but by the difference you make in people's lives."