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Michelle Obama: Barack Is The Same Man He Was When Our First Child Was Born

Some advance excerpts of Michelle Obama's convention speech have just been sent out by the campaign, and her mission tonight will clearly be to demystify the Obamas' background, biography, and heritage, and to deflect attacks on Obama's supposed "celeb" self-regard.

In the speech, Michelle offers a nod to the fact that the Obama's don't come from the central casting that has produced past presidential couples, as the Obama camp has put it in the past. "Each of us also comes here tonight by way of our own improbable journey," she says.

Michelle will seek to make Americans more comfortable with the Obamas by talking about the values that both Obamas were raised with, and are raising their own children with, as well as discussing the Obamas' shared experience of childbirth. Notably, Michelle will say that Obama hasn't changed since she first met him, an apparent effort to deflect attacks on Obama as intoxicated by his own "celebrity."

From the speech:

"And in the end, after all that's happened these past 19 months, the Barack Obama I know today is the same man I fell in love with 19 years ago. He's the same man who drove me and our new baby daughter home from the hospital ten years ago this summer, inching along at a snail's pace, peering anxiously at us in the rearview mirror, feeling the whole weight of her future in his hands, determined to give her everything he'd struggled so hard for himself, determined to give her what he never had: the affirming embrace of a father's love."

We'll be blogging the convention right here, so stay with us. More Michelle speech excerpts after the jump.

"But each of us also comes here tonight by way of our own improbable journey. I come here tonight as a sister, blessed with a brother who is my mentor, my protector and my lifelong friend. I come here as a wife who loves my husband and believes he will be an extraordinary president. I come here as a Mom whose girls are the heart of my heart and the center of my world - they're the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning, and the last thing I think about when I go to bed at night. Their future - and all our children's future - is my stake in this election.

And I come here as a daughter - raised on the South Side of Chicago by a father who was a blue collar city worker, and a mother who stayed at home with my brother and me. My mother's love has always been a sustaining force for our family, and one of my greatest joys is seeing her integrity, her compassion, and her intelligence reflected in my own daughters."

***

"And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you're going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them, and even if you don't agree with them.

And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and pass them on to the next generation. Because we want our children - and all children in this nation - to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them."

***

"And in the end, after all that's happened these past 19 months, the Barack Obama I know today is the same man I fell in love with 19 years ago. He's the same man who drove me and our new baby daughter home from the hospital ten years ago this summer, inching along at a snail's pace, peering anxiously at us in the rearview mirror, feeling the whole weight of her future in his hands, determined to give her everything he'd struggled so hard for himself, determined to give her what he never had: the affirming embrace of a father's love."



50 Comments

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Michelle will rock the stage tonight. No one represents Barack better than her, not even Barack.

Michelle and Ted Kennedy-two unprecedented powerhouses.

It's too bad that her "proud" comment limited her exposure. Hopefully this will help return her to a more prominent place.

I agree. But I'm not concerned. She is an asset to Brack, to democrats and to this country.

I'm beginning to look at this race with a touch of stoicsm. I think the choice between Obama and McCain is clear- if we don't elect Obama we collectively have to suffer the mistake, and that's that.

If I live in a country which falls for swift boating, xenophobia, and commits a error of electing a republican again- then I've to just wait before I live in a better country.

I hear ya.

Yep. Otherwise I'm becoming so emotionally invested, I'm nervous how I feel one late Nov tuesday night. Right now I'm not ready to take any news but good news.

It's hard to separate McCain the campaigner and the one who will govern, but right now I feel like John will show us what the last 8 years would have been like had Cheney been president rather than Bush. And to have such the alternative right there, ready to go and right this sinking ship...that November night will truly be surreal (if that's the word I'm looking for.)

Spot on. McWar sends shivers down my spine. I never felt an election is so personally important ever before. I never felt my future was on the line before.

Never.


Totally. I agree with you completely. This election is really the make-or-break point for the US.

I know what you mean about being nervous. I live this election. Sometimes I start feeling depressed that folks would show up to hear Senator Obama speak but not to vote. I hope people exercise some common sense and come out to take America back the corruptions that have been the norm for the past 7.5 years.

Why release snippets like these? Doesn't it take away from the speech when she delivers it? Of course being on at 10Pm EST will probably really limit exposure.

I guess those were the points they wanted in the newspapers tomorrow and her speech would be after the deadline sorta deal. Am I right?

I love that Michelle Obama she is AMAZING

so it's probably because i'm gestating here, but that snippet had me tearing up.

i think stories like that will go a long way to meeting their objective.

Call me sentimental, but I think she is going to be a great first lady.

They need to get Jill Biden out in front of the cameras as well.

While commendable that Obama sought to keep the criticism from Michelle, I think he got the short end of the stick on the spouses being "off-limits" treaty because Cindy Stepford is a treasure trove of oppo. The thought of Cindy being first lady makes me shiver in disgust.

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OT: Politico reports that Obama is taking the Ayers ad to DoJ.

Sen. Barack Obama has launched an all-out effort to block a Republican billionaire’s efforts to tie him to domestic and foreign terrorists in a wave of negative television ads.

Obama’s campaign has written the Department of Justice demanding a criminal investigation of the “American Issues Project,” the vehicle through which Dallas investor Harold Simmons is financing the advertisements. The Obama campaign — and tens of thousands of supporters — also is pressuring television networks and affiliates to reject the ads. The effort has met with some success: CNN and Fox News are not airing the attacks, and some local affiliates have refused as well.

Obama has also launched his own response ad, directly addressing Simmons' attempt to link him to domestic terror.

The project is “a knowing and willful attempt to violate the strictures of federal election law,” Obama general counsel Bob Bauer wrote to Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Keeney last week in a letter provided to Politico. Bauer argued that by advocating Obama’s defeat, the ad should be subject to the contribution limits of federal campaign law, not the anything-goes regime of issue advocacy.

Bauer’s letter called on the Justice Department to open “an investigation of the American Issues Project; its officers and directors; and its anonymous donors, whoever they may be.”

Taking Chicago politics national.

Oh for shitsake! When will Obama ever grow a pair and stop his continual WHINING and calls of off limits and 'no fair'.

He is such a total puss!!!

I bet you have to tie a porkchop around your neck just to get your dog so show any interest in you?

My kids loved that joke in 3rd grade too! Ahhh, memories.

Now run along and get your homework done!

Third grade, huh? Was that right after you married them off to their cousins?

You have kids? Pity the poor souls. In vitro fertilization is a miracle of modern science isn't it. Certainly explains your frustrations...

It is 100% illegal with this 527 did. You need to be advocating a legislative issue, you cannot simply put together a smear ad and advocate for a candidate.

Of course this issue will not be decided until long after the election and those involved will plead ignorance and beg forgiveness.

The "Chicago Way" would be publicizing the names of those involved and going after them and boycotting the business source of their wealth.

Maybe they are looking to do that. The other side is to put the fear into any others who might be thinking of doing something similiar.

Hopefully they'll take your idea and go after the pharmaceutical guy. Smear and you'll be smeared.

Ahhhh! So very touching!

I wonder if she'll mention what a crappy country she finds the USA to be with how mean we are with our broken souls. Or if she's found a second reason to be proud of her country since she became an adult.

Hopefully she'll also make mention of the many wonderful friends she and her husband have like Rev. Wright, Father Pflager, Ayers, Dorn, Rezco, Mayor Daily, ACORN pals, etc... etc... .

She is just soooo precious!!!

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmhhhhhhhhh

yer stoopid

and dickey-heady if I may add

Barak, stop your whining.

Michelle, shouldn't you be practicing your speech? It's almost time to wow the ignorant.

OMG...it's so awful that the poor woman who is not used to being in the public eye misspoke. You seem to be much more willing to forgive McCain for misspeaking .... constantly: shia/sunni, Czechoslavakia, I have no idea where I stand on insurance coverage of birth control, I want you all to see my wife's breasts, I want to veto all beers. The saddest part about him is this is HIS job....don't you think he should be making less mistakes than she is?

If McCain or anyone else running for POTUS or their spouse degraded this country I would feel exactly the same way. Period.

She did not misspeak. That's how she feels and you know it as well as I do.

McCain said the same thing remember?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkPUBn3vyoM

So, tell me, why does John McCain hate his country?

And by the way....how the hell would you know how she or anyone else really feels about anything?

Troll alert. The Sewers must have flooded in Mo, and flushed Lori the Sewer Rat out.

Even as trolls goes, you're pretty boring.

"trolls goes"?????

*yawn*

Buzz off, troll.

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Hey, at least Obama didn't marry an heiress. Come on, you folks lambasted Kerry in 2004 for doing it. If you had a gram of decency you'd berate McCrumbly for doing it too.

By the way, a gram is less than an ounce. We already know that people like you don't have an ounce of decency left in you.

Now, go to hell and help your mother make a bitch pie.

He's the same, aloof, arrogant, condescending know-it-all he was 19 years ago. BRAVO!

Wait, he still doesn't contribute to charity?
Wait, he still considers Rev. Wright his mentor?
Wait, he's still buddies with Rezko?
Wait, is he the same but, like, different?
Or is he, um, different but the same?
What exactly is his name, is it the same?
He still does a little blow now and then?
Now let's talk about that raise to $300K you got.

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Won't you once and for all go fuck yourself gently with a chainsaw?

You are a truly worthless troll and rotten small one at that.

LU--DA--CRIS!

LU--DA--CRIS!

LU--DA--CRIS!

I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that she won't mention that despite low SAT scores she got into Princeton as a legacy because her older brother Craig was a star basketball player there. Or that, as she admitted to Newsweek, she got into Harvard Law School via affirmative action. Or that she enjoyed fist-bumping other parishioners at Trinity when Jeremiah denounced white folks.

This place is trooooolllll-licious. Dang.

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Let's quickly review Cindy McCrumbly's education here... she majored in Special Ed at USC. And got her Master's too, without affirmative action.

And then she married McCrumbly... obviously an act of charity on her part.

Oh, and weren't they involved in an adulterous affair?

Tsk... those "family values" Republicans. They all have skeletons in their closets... but McCrumbly lets his go out in public.

yeah! I bet they all talked about how they want to "get whitey" and then gave each other fist bumps to show their support for Hezbollah!

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Michelle just gave one of the best speeches you could ever hear! That woman is classy, classy, classy! I loved her so much I just ran to my computer and dropped another $50 on the campaign, money I really can't spare.

We can't let Obama lose this election. I can see no other way to look at it. Sure, he has warts, but so do I. But, he will be the best president of my life, of that I am certain.

Michelle Obama: "My daughters are the first thing on my mind when I wake up in the morning and the last thing I think about before I go to sleep at night."

It's just a matter of time for the Fox News crawl to appear: "Radical Black separatist Michelle Obama says daughters are 'the last thing on her mind' -- is Obama's baby mamma putting politics too far ahead of her family?"

We're gonna win.

And the trolls on here will have to eat that.

Bon appetit, trolls.

Wonderful speech! MP3 highlights are up.

LoriInMo, you sound like one of those gibbering lil' fringe goblins. And, of course, I see a generous sprinkling of Limbaugh-speak in your comments. Pathetic. Yes, there ARE 3-digit IQ's in the world, just not in yours.

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