Style and substance: Michelle Obama speaks and shines

By Askia Muhammad -Senior Correspondent- | Last updated: Sep 11, 2012 - 6:35:21 PM

First Lady Michelle Obama. Photo: Monica Morgan

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (FinalCall.com) - First Lady Michelle Obama joined at least two dozen female members of Congress, congressional candidates, former officials, and celebrities, as well as Lilly Ledbetter—for whom the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the first bill signed into law by President Obama was named—as a speaker during the Democratic National Convention here.

By all accounts, and on virtually every measurable scale, Mrs. Obama’s address on Sept. 4 was a triumph, even gaining more online viewers after her speech, than all the male and female speakers combined at the recent Republican convention.

Before Mrs. Obama delivered one word of her impassioned “Mom-in-Chief” address, and long after it concluded, fashion bloggers raved about her manicure as much as her Tracy Reese dress. “Michelle Obama doesn’t follow style rules, she reinvents them,” Piper Weiss wrote for “Shine from Yahoo.”

Based on data provided by Visible Measures, an online video analytics company, the First Lady’s speech was watched 2.6 million times in the three days following its delivery, Forbes reported. By comparison, the top 10 Republican speakers combined for just 2.1 million views during a comparable period following the GOP convention.

The president was also generous in his praise of his wife. “Michelle, I love you. And the other night, the entire nation saw just how lucky I am,” Mr. Obama said as he began his acceptance speech two days after her remarks.

“Over the past few years as first lady, I have had the extraordinary privilege of traveling all across this country,” Mrs. Obama began. “And everywhere I’ve gone and the people I’ve met and the stories I’ve heard, I have seen the very best of the American spirit. I have seen it in the incredible kindness and warmth that people have shown me and my family, especially our girls.

“Serving as your First Lady is an honor and a privilege … but back when we first came together four years ago, I still had some concerns about this journey we’d begun. While I believed deeply in my husband’s vision for this country—and I was certain he would make an extraordinary president—like any mother, I was worried about what it would mean for our girls if he got that chance,” she said explaining the importance of the entire family remaining “grounded under the glare of the national spotlight.”

Both she and her husband, she said, rose to their positions of prominence from humble beginnings.

“You see, Barack and I were both raised by families who didn’t have much in the way of money or material possessions, but who had given us something far more valuable: their unconditional love, their unflinching sacrifice and the chance to go places they had never imagined for themselves,” she continued.

“Like so many American families, our families weren’t asking for much. They didn’t begrudge anyone else’s success or care that others had much more than they did. In fact, they admired it. They simply believed in that fundamental American promise that even if you don’t start out with much, if you work hard and do what you’re supposed to do, you should be able to build a decent life for yourself and an even better life for your kids and grandkids. That’s how they raised us. That’s what we learned from their example.”

Her concern four years ago was that their close-knit family not be spoiled by the glare of public attention. “Well today, after so many struggles and triumphs and moments that have tested my husband in ways I never could have imagined, I have seen firsthand that being president doesn’t change who you are—it reveals who you are.”

Mr. Obama, she said, is “the same man who started his career by turning down high paying jobs and instead working in struggling neighborhoods where a steel plant had shut down, fighting to rebuild those communities and get folks back to work—because for Barack, success isn’t about how much money you make, it’s about the difference you make in people’s lives.”

And now, after an up close and personal view of what being president really looks like, Mrs. Obama insisted that their family is prepared for and deserving of four more years in the White House. “You see, at the end of the day, my most important title is still ‘mom-in-chief.’ ”

“If our parents and grandparents could toil and struggle for us, you know, if they could raise beams of steel to the sky, send a man to the moon, connect the world with a touch of a button, then surely we can keep on sacrificing and building for our own kids and grandkids, right?

“And if so many brave men and women could wear our country’s uniform and sacrifice their lives for our most fundamental rights, then surely we can do our part as citizens of this great democracy to exercise those rights. Surely, we can get to the polls on Election Day and make our voices heard,” she insisted.

“If farmers and blacksmiths could win independence from an empire, if immigrants could leave behind everything they knew for a better life on our shores, if women could be dragged to jail for seeking the vote, if a generation could defeat a Depression and define greatness for all time, if a young preacher could lift us to the mountaintop with his righteous dream, and if proud Americans can be who they are and boldly stand at the altar with who they love, then surely, surely, we can give everyone in this country a fair chance at that great American dream,” Mrs. Obama said.

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