We are in the Palms of Her Hands!

We are in the Palms of her Hands!

I have heard that watching Michelle Obama on TV was exciting, and brought people to tears.  It is hard to describe what it was like to be there in person. The earlier speakers set the table beautifully. This was especially true of San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro who was so dynamic that he reminds one of an unknown Senator Obama at an earlier convention.   Thus, we were well primed for hearing the First Lady.

There was real excitement in the room. Just before she walked across the stage, attendees were given We Love Michelle signs, which many of us took home later as souvenirs we will display in our homes.

Michelle Obama is statuesque, beautiful, and articulate. At the same time, she is completely unpretentious and is totally genuine. There is no false note in anything she says. Her love of her family and her country are palpable. In the auditorium, we were entranced into respectful silence. This alternated with loud cheering and enthusiastic waving of our soon-to-be souvenir signs.

To use an old baby-boomer phrase, being in the convention hall was very cool. You are in a concert and sports arena, which has been transformed into a totally different venue. The staging was well done. I was surprised last week to see that the background for many Republican speakers was a swirl of blue colors. It looked like the storms and hurricanes they were trying to pretend they had handled well. That was when President Bush congratulated Brownie for a job well done. 

The stage was large, with the speakers dwarfed by the screen behind them. The pictures surrounding the screen changed with the speaker. For example, when the San Antonio mayor spoke, the screen was wrapped with pictures of his city. The best was when a firefighter spoke and was surrounded by a fire station. Stage right were the fire hats and jackets and boots. The technology is so good that I was wondering if we could see Sparky sliding down a fire poll!

I am looking forward to tonight, especially to see Bill Clinton. He has a unique ability to take complicated issues and explain them in plain English. (If only Barack Obama had done this with the Affordable Care Act). He can remind us how his tax increase and social safety net policies led to major growth in the economy. We need to follow his model now, as it is dangerous to the economy to elect Romney who would focus on all the wrong strategies.

I am watching Fox News as I write. They just announced that the Presidents re-nomination will be moved away from the huge football stadium. Typical for the channel of fair and balanced reporting, the only reason Fox gave was concern that the DNC might not be able to fill all the seats. In fact, there is concern about thunderstorms and lightning and the safety of the crowd. As usual, why let the facts get in the way of a way to frame the story to your side’s advantage?

 

We are in the Palms of Her Hands