Well Said

August 25, 2008 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Election 2008 

It’s hard to believe that there will be a speech better written or delivered in Denver than Michelle Obama’s last night.

Skillfully, seamlessly, she covered every base, pushed every button, and pulled every heartstring, with an ease and aplomb that Meryl Streep could envy. She might have done with just a few less conversational “You sees”; and as she built up steam some “g”s went missing — but these are merely observations that don’t even rise to the level of quibbles.

And it didn’t hurt that she looked terrific.

With the pressure and expectations already high on her silver-tongued husband for his Thursday night’s canonization coronation, Mrs. Obama’s 1800 very well-chosen words have moved the bar up several extra notches.

Her speech was bookended by two equally impressive performances.

Her introduction by her brother Craig was strong and heartfelt.

And the artless charm of the video phone call from Kansas City following the speech —with the already delightful daughters being, well, even more delightful— was the perfect finale. (The Senator finally figured out which city he was in when Sasha pinned him down on the subject.)

The slightly awkward technical feedback added a winning human element to a segment whose perfection quota had already long since been met. It even set Wonkette’s flinty heart abeating: “Perhaps six-year-old kids can be programmed to break out in this kind of daddy-love, in the future, on Mars, but for now, this is kind of awesome.”

In fact, it was so good that —in the spirit of the questions raised by the Obama camp regarding Senator McCain’s Saddleback home run— I’m almost tempted to say “apparently artless”. In an operation as slick as Team Obama, where little is left to chance, could this actually have been a present day pre-Martian piece of programming? Almost — but not quite.  I’m completely won over and happily in awe along with Wonkette.

You can watch the speech on demand on C-Span (under “Recent Programs”).

And while you have the C-Span “Recent Programs” window open, scroll down a bit and see Senator McCain’s drop by at Cindy’s old high school in Phoenix. It’s a wonderful vignette of real life on the campaign trail. If you’re pressed for time you can forward to about 2:55, where you will learn what it really takes to impress a group of teenagers. At first bemused (and maybe a little stunned) by the turn of events, the Senator quickly gets into the spirit of the moment and hits another home run. It’s 13 minutes of heartwarming Americana.

Comments