Van Jones: Michelle Obama’s remarkable master class
What she delivered was a master class. She was not just trying to put the President down — she was trying to pick the country up.
In Obama’s hands, empathy is not something unique to Joe Biden. It is what makes us human and decent. It is simply something Biden shares with us, and that Trump lacks.
When she said that Biden “knows the anguish of sitting at a table with an empty chair,” anyone who has ever lost a loved one was on the verge of tears — which is all of us.
She was remarkably, but characteristically, honest about how some people simply chose not to vote in 2016 and outlined what it cost all of us. To young people, especially young Black and Brown voters who want radical change immediately, she said Biden would be the first to admit that he is not perfect. She made voting part of a strategy for confronting the big problems coming down the road.
It is hard to wrap your head around the extent of the devastation and how much Americans are hurting. They are losing loved ones, watching their businesses close, and worrying about their kids’ futures.
In the face of this, Obama reminded us of our own strength. “I know the goodness and the grace that is out there,” she said, “in households and neighborhoods all across the country.”
About halfway through, Obama said she “hates politics.” It was honest and utterly believable. She gave a fundamentally human, non-political speech at a political convention, and she knocked it out of the park.
