Democratic Convention Watch 2008 - Michelle Obama

While we wait for Michelle Obama, we get a boring Republican Jim Leach, former congressman from Iowa. The missus thinks he sounds like Kermit the Frog, and I must admit that she's right. So it's great to have a Republican speaking in support of Obama and all, but this guy is dry as toast. He's making good points, but he sure is hard to listen to.

We also get a little Senator Claire McCaskill, an early Obama supporter. She's fine, but let's face it: we want ourselves some Michelle Obama now. Claire's talking about herself a little too much. But then at least she transitioned to talking about Michelle and Barack. "Their stories are American stories." Oh, I see what you're getting at, Claire. The Obamas are American, in spite of their color and funny name.

Here comes the Michelle tribute film. With the piano music, the missus starts crying. Michelle had some big hair when she graduated high school. And we heard the how-they-met story. Very cute, I guess. A perfectly good tribute film. I know more about Michelle Obama than I did before the film.

Craig Robinson, Michelle's brother, introduces her. He just shouted, "Go Beavers!" which is always a surprise in a political setting. Oh, he's a basketball coach. That makes a lot more sense. And here she is...

Michelle just said literally. Hm...

She seems remarkably comfortable giving this speech. I'm more nervous for her now than she is, so that's a good sign. In fact, she looks like she's full-on in her element, like she's been speaking in convention centers in front of thousands of people since the day she was born.

And the content? She made a pretty strong argument for why she loves America. I believe her. And only an asshole would think she's insincere. But the assholes will come out, I suspect. Who'll be first? Romney or Giuliani?

OK, so how did she do that? "Isn't She Lovely" by Stevie Wonder plays. Yes, I think she might be.

Oh, looky. There's Barack, making jokes about being persistent. Children are speaking in microphones. It's chaos. How on earth did they agree to hand the mics over to children? That could've been a disaster. "Hey, Daddy! How's the rash?"

What do Shields and Yarnell think? Shields liked the diversity of the evening and the spirit of opportunity. Yarnell thought the Democrats had a good night, but thought Michelle missed a chance to humanize Barack. Yarnell was looking for something to criticize, so he made something up.

And the historians? Well, they disagree with Yarnell. Historian 1 saw Michelle in a context of other trailblazing African-American women. Historian 2 thought as presidential spouses go, she did very well, and thought the chaos of the girls earned him about two million votes. Historian 3 thinks it's more like four million. They presented a happy, loving family.

The reporter on the floor said even the press was rapt during Michelle's speech. If you can win those jackasses over, you can win over regular people.

Now, they're looking forward to tomorrow evening's festivities.

Good first night pep rally, Democrats. You sure know how to party.