I have a new story up on the home page about Michelle Obama’s performance last night here in Denver. And the bottom line is: it was a strikingly, almost stunningly different Michelle Obama from the one I have seen out on the campaign trail:
Near the end of Michelle Obama’s speech to the Democratic National Convention Monday night, I got an e-mail from a friend who had been with me at another speech by Mrs. Obama, in Charlotte, North Carolina, last May, on the eve of that state’s primary. “This isn’t the Michelle we know,” my friend said. And indeed, Mrs. Obama’s speech to the delegates here in Denver was worlds away from her address in Charlotte.
In Denver, Michelle Obama described America as a place of hope, a place where people find success during the course of “improbable journeys.” In Charlotte, her America was a dark and ugly place, where people who work hard are knocked down by sinister forces — a place where even young children burst into tears when they realize the deck is stacked against them.
So which version of America does Mrs. Obama truly believe? I don’t know, but I think it is pretty clear that last night’s version will become the official one in the campaign. Millions of people saw her deliver the speech from convention. Maybe a thousand saw the speech in Charlotte, and apart from C-Span and NRO, it received virtually no coverage in the press.