Michelle, More in Love Than Ever, to Get Obama Reelected

And so the theme of this year’s presidential election will be love. In response to Ann Romney’s grand performance last Tuesday, when she “came to talk about love” to thousands of Republican delegates at a meeting in Tampa, Michelle Obama also declared her love, this time to her Barack. “I didn’t think it was possible,” explained the first lady, looking dazzling in a pink and grey dress by new stylist Tracy Reese, “but today, I love my husband even more than I did four years ago… even more than I did 23 years ago, when we first met.”

Like Ann Romney, albeit in a more credible and realistic fashion, Michelle Obama detailed at length the modest backgrounds of her and Obama’s families — one would almost believe that being poor, or rather having been poor, was a prerequisite for getting into the White House. Michelle recalled her father, who suffered from multiple sclerosis (like Ann Romney), and who scrimped and saved to ensure his children had access to education: “You see, for my dad, that’s what it meant to be a man.” Her romance with Obama found its roots in quite humble beginnings, she said (they were both nevertheless Harvard graduates at this point): the car with which Obama would pick her up was “so rusted out I could actually see the pavement going by in a hole in the passenger side door.”

As we often see her do in meeting upon meeting, Michelle celebrated Obama’s humanity and ability to remain “the same” person despite the four years he has spent in the White House, stating that he is still a model father who takes time almost every evening with his daughters to “patiently answer their questions,” as well as a devoted president, “late at night, hunched over his desk” reading letters written to him by the American people. As a side note, Michelle also outlined the plan of the last four years in the White House, with its aim of “creating jobs again… good jobs right here in the United States of America.”

As you will have understood, the speech was a touch overloaded with pathos, but it went down spectacularly with the audience. The atmosphere at the Charlotte convention seemed much warmer and more enthusiastic than the Republican convention in Tampa. Here, there were no Ron Paulists daring to yell out their grievances about the Romney-Ryan ticket. No, here it was as if the room was filled with cheerleaders, chanting with all their heart, “Four more years! Four more years!” or waving banners reading “Forward. Not back.” Made especially for Michelle’s speech, certain delegates also sported banners in the shape of fries proclaiming “We love Michelle,” and the crowd could be seen shaking their fries at the beginning and end in a most harmonious routine.

But just one question remains, which goes as much for Obama as for Romney — if the two candidates were as great and extraordinary as their wives profess, would they really need them to sing their praises this much?