Jim Lindgren: Michelle Obama’s Stump Speech.--

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Posted by Jim Lindgren:
Michelle Obama’s Stump Speech.--
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_05_04-2008_05_10.shtml#1210091041


   Byron York is among several commentators today [1]who, with a
   jaundiced eye, are discussing of Michelle Obamaâs stump speech:

     Walking onstage to chants of âYes, we can!â and âFired up â ready
     to go!â she quickly gets to the heart of her message: There are
     forces out there who are trying to take away everything Barack has
     worked for. They â she doesnât mention anyone in particular but
     does refer to one âbrand name politicianâ â are trying to win this
     election for themselves and thereby deny Obama the opportunity to
     move America to the mountaintop of hope. And they must be stopped.

     âWeâve learned that weâre still living in a time and in a nation
     where the bar is set, right?â she tells the crowd.

     âThatâs right.â

     âThey tell you all you need to do is do these things and youâll get
     to the bar â â

     âUh-huh.â

     âSo you go about the business of doing those things â â

     âYes â â

     Her husband has been doing just that, Obama explains â raising
     money, building an organization, winning caucuses, winning
     primaries, and amassing a large number of delegates. And yet he
     still hasnât won, because nothing is ever enough for those unnamed
     adversaries.

     âYou start working hard and sacrificing, and you think youâre
     getting closer to the bar, youâre working and youâre struggling,
     you get right to that bar, youâre reaching out for the bar, and
     then what happens?â

     âThey raise the bar!â

     âThey raise the bar. Raise the bar. Shift it to the side. Keep it
     just out of reach.â

     âYes!â

     âAnd thatâs just whatâs been happening in this race.â

     Mrs. Obama begins a long riff about how that is happening not just
     to her husband but to Americans as a whole, who are working hard
     only to find the benefits of their work kept just out of reach.
     âYou know what happens when you live in a society where the vast
     majority of people are struggling every day to reach an
     ever-shifting and moving bar?â she asks. âYou know what happens in
     that kind of society?â

     âTHEY GET FRUSTRATED!â yells a man in the audience.

     Thatâs right, Obama says. And that frustration leaves people
     isolated and afraid, and then âwe pass on all that negative energy
     to the next generation.â She tells the story of a ten-year-old girl
     she met in Newberry, S.C., before that stateâs primary. âIt was in
     a little beauty shop, and we were having a rally â it was me and a
     bunch of women and a couple of brothers,â she recalls. After the
     rally, the girl came up to her and said, with great seriousness,
     âDo you realize when your husband becomes the next president of the
     United States, it will be historical?â

     Everybody laughs; what a cute thing for a child to say. But then
     Obama asked the little girl what that would mean for her. âIt means
     that I can imagine anything for myself,â the girl said.

     The crowd begins to applaud; they think theyâre hearing a happy,
     inspiring story. But thatâs not where Mrs. Obama is going.

     âAnd then that little girl started to break down in tears,â she
     continues. âShe sobbed so hard. She was crying big, huge tears. And
     I had to think, why is this little girl crying so hard? And I
     thought, you know whatâs going on? This little old girl gets it.â

     âYeah â â

     âThis little ten-year-old girl knows whatâs at stake.â

     âThatâs right â â

     âShe knows that sheâs already five steps behind â â

     âMmm-huh â â

     âShe knows that her hopes for college are already dwindling â â

     âYes â â

     âShe knows that if she gets sick, maybe has an asthma attack,
     instead of going to a doctor and being treated, sheâs going to be
     sitting in an emergency room for hours on end.â

     âThatâs right â â

     In short, Obama says, the little girl, just ten, knows that the bar
     has been moved far away from her, and she âfeels that veil of
     impossibility, and it is suffocating her.â

     âThis little girl is in all of us,â Obama concludes.

     âMmm-huh â â

     Even Michelle Obama herself. âIâm not supposed to be here,â she
     tells the crowd. âI am a statistical oddity. As a black girl raised
     on the south side of Chicago, Iâm not supposed to be here. I wasnât
     supposed to go to Princeton. They said my test scores were too
     highâ â surely a verbal slip, because in the past she has said she
     was told her test scores were too low â âI wasnât supposed to go to
     Harvard Law School, because they said it might be a little too hard
     for me. And I certainly am not supposed to be standing here with a
     chance to become the next first lady of the United States of
     America.â

     But here she is, in just that position â only to find that they, as
     always, are trying to raise the bar a little higher, just out of
     her and her husbandâs reach. Still, she asks the crowd âto close
     your eyes and do some dreamingâ¦to dream of the day that a man like
     Barack Obama is standing in front of the Capitol with his hand on
     the Bible.â With that, the audience erupts into shouting and
     applause.

References

   1. http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=OGQ1MzFkMWU4MmYxMjhkZmNiZGE5YWY3NWUzNGMyMmY=