wow, Michelle...

it struck me forcefully that i have never seen a multiracial crowd of 50,000 people (ref) listen with rapt attention to the words of a Black woman. never.

maybe there's a Black woman preacher somewhere (here are Ebony's top 15) who has commanded an audience like this, but i haven't seen it and neither have most people in this country, i'd bet.

every time they cut to the crowd it was almost a shock to see the faces of all these white people LISTENING to a Black woman.

when Carol Moseley Brown ran for president, nobody listened to her - I remember watching her in the early debates - she would say something intelligent, and there was no response; a minute later, some now-forgotten white guy would say the same thing, to thunderous applause. this pretty much mirrors every discussion section, every staff meeting, every political group i've ever been in. i used to take joy in making the point, in those settings, "you know, x just said that a few minutes ago," and enjoy the startled looks on people's faces as much as x's obvious satisfaction.

but nobody had to point out that Michelle was speaking, had spoken, or what she said, because everybody was listening. REALLY listening.

i think about my students. they won't have noticed this. but they'll grow up in a world where 50,000 people, including some of the biggest political big shots in the nation and the world, have hung on a Black woman's words for - was it really only 15 minutes?

excuse me while i wax ecstatic.

DNC convention website

Of course, all this doesn't matter one whit to those who are so intent on portraying her as somehow a cross between Ivana Trump and Angela Davis... read this blog:
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/08/25/exclusive-advance-text-of-michelle-obamas-speech/
(copy-paste so i don't show up in her trackbacks! yikes!)

The scary thing is how stupid so many of her commenters are...