Today is Wednesday, August 21, 2024. The second night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention (DNC) had heavy hitters hitting home runs out of the ball field like Michelle Obama, Doug Emhoff, husband of presidential candidate Kamala Harris, and former president Barrack Obama. I don’t have the time to review each of the speeches given by these eloquent speakers, except one, that given by former first lady Michelle Obama. Her speech was especially eloquent and thought provoking, even more so than many addresses offered before her. She might have even outshone her husband, Barrack, who immediately followed her and who quipped that it was some hard act to follow when he took to the stage to deliver his speech.

In an online article for The Nation, Jeet Heer breaks down her speech in “Michelle Obama Is a Master of Politics Because She Hates Politics.”

The writer of the piece writes that Obama is such a compelling speaker because she has an aversion to politics and “can reach ordinary people who aren’t political junkies or hard-core partisans because she has the same outsider perspective as they do.”

Michelle Obama’s speech “was about psychology as much as politics, about the despair and depression that the ascendency of Trump has produced in many people, as well as the self-defeating habits of thought that prevent people from throwing themselves into a necessary political battle.” At various instances, she referred to private matters (the death of her mother, her use of IVF to have children) – moments that served to underscore that she was talking about the election from a place of personal anguish.

Obama hit Dump where it hurt in a very eloquent turn of phrase, not just stating that Trump is a failed businessman born with a silver spoon in his pouty mouth. Here is what she said:

“[Kamala Harris] understands that most of us will never be afforded the grace of falling forward, we will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth. If we bankrupt the business or choke in a crisis, we do not get a second, third or fourth chance. If things do not go our way, we do not have the luxury of whining or cheating others to get further ahead. No. We don’t get to change the rules so we always win. If we see a mountain in front of us, we don’t expect there to be an escalator waiting to take us to the top. No. We put our heads down. We get to work. In America, we do something.”

Obama here uses such a simple, eloquent turn of phrase (“the affirmative action of generational wealth”) to debunk the lie at the heart of Dump’s politics.

Also, Obama wasn’t content in simply making the case against Trump. She also challenged Democrats to confront their own self-defeating anxieties that often lead to paralysis. In another highlight of the speech, she implored:

“So no matter how good we feel tonight or tomorrow or the next day, this is going to be an uphill battle, folks. We cannot be our own worst enemies. No. Because the minute something goes wrong, the minute a lie takes hold, folks, we cannot start wringing our hands. We cannot get a Goldilocks complex about whether everything is just right. We cannot indulge our anxieties about whether this country will elect someone like Kamala, instead of doing everything we can to get someone like Kamala elected.”

Unlike any other speaker at the DNC thus far, Michelle Obama talked bluntly about the “anxieties” that drive Democrats because she anticipates that the other side will impugn Harris’s record just to distract and divide voters so as to take advantage of this to win an election. Here Obama was entering a space no other speaker at the DNC dared enter.

Now with her speech in Chicago last night, “Michelle Obama has herself delivered a message that will resonate not only in this election but for years to come.”

Today I took the car for the first time since returning from Australia on Sunday and drove gingerly to the comic book store to pick up four books waiting for me since I left on August 3. Since the accident on July 1o, I’m apprehensive about driving altogether. Thank God nothing happened during my excursion to Metropolitan Avenue. Everything was fine, even though there were fewer double-parked cars this time on my way to the store.

Later Elliot and I even had dinner out for the first time, which marked Elliot’s adjustment to the time change after flying back from Down Under.

Stay safe and be well.