“Our motto is, when they go low, we go high,” Michelle Obama said in her speech at the Democratic National Convention on Monday night, a vivid, emotional, expertly delivered endorsement of Hillary Clinton that somehow managed to—at least temporarily—wipe away the grime of cynicism and anger that have colored the past 48 hours.
“There is only one person who I believe is truly qualified to be President of the United States, and that is our friend Hillary Clinton,” the First Lady pronounced, highlighting Clinton’s work with children. “And when she didn’t win the nomination eight years ago, she didn’t get angry, or disillusioned...as a true public servant, Hillary knows that this is so much bigger than her desires and disappointments.”
The crowd, unruly and prone to angry chants during earlier remarks, turned rapt when Obama hit the stage. But things really got going towards the end of the speech, when Obama spoke about her daughters’ monumental place in history.
That is the story of this country, the story that brought me to this stage tonight. The story of generations of people who felt the lash of bondage, the shame of servitude, the sting of segregation, but who kept on striving and hoping and doing what needed to be done, so that today, I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves. And I watch my daughters, two beautiful intelligent black young women, playing with their dogs on the white house lawn. And because of Hillary Clinton, my daughters, and all our sons and daughters, now take for granted that a woman can be President of the United States.
Gonna be tough to follow this one up.