Michelle Obama, Rounding Out the Candidate

So the Democratic Convention is going on through Friday of this week, with Barack accepting the official nomination for president with his speech on Thursday night. But let this be a sign of the man--he did not have this leader or that in the Democratic party or otherwise as the keynote speaker last night--the first night of the Convention; rather, he had his wife, Michelle Obama, in the top spot. And let me just say here--good choice. She rocked the party. But more than that, she spoke with a richness of values that just seeped through the video and hit me good (yes, good).

Take a look yourself and I think you may see the reflection of Barack in her, and her in Barack, in the way I did; as she herself says in the speech, both of them were raised with values that informed their outlooks and individual entrances into public service. So, I think that while we have a great man in Barack alone, we have a richer, fuller consideration than that, for Michelle clearly brings so much to the table in terms of her strength, mind, humanity, and so forth (in addition, they both of course have two little girls and the related understanding of families that affords). I actually am including three videos below: the intro video they showed of Michelle's mother telling the story of her daughter and their family; the in-person introduction that followed by her brother, Craig Robinson; and Michelle's own speech (I'll have to add a few other videos of Michelle in some later updates to this post, but you can also watch and read more about her here, on Obama's website). And oh, while I'm thinking about it, earlier in the night they showed a great tribute video to Sen. Ted Kennedy, highlighting things like his relationship with JFK and Robert Kennedy, after which Kennedy gave a stirring speech on how much new hope (yes, hope) Obama imbues him with--and remember, Kennedy has been in Congress for over forty years.

Video of Michelle's mother telling Michelle's story



Video of Michelle's brother introducing her



Video of Michelle's speech



Update: That didn't take long, here's another speech from Obama's website that I happened to have already heard a few weeks ago; it's Michelle speaking at the "Democratic National Committee's Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council":