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26 Aug 2008 02:58 pm

A reader writes:

I agree with you that Michelle Obama's speech was brilliant, but for most of it I was just thinking "pretty good", as much of it felt like things I'd heard before.

For me, the crucial moment when it went from good to great was when she told the story of her husband driving her and their infant daughter home from the hospital, creeping along at ten miles an hour, watching them in the back seat, the weight of the world on his shoulders. As a father myself, I remember doing exactly the same thing, and I know exactly what he was feeling at that moment -- it's one of the most intense experiences of a father's life.

I don't know what effect it will have compared to the big narratives, the policy questions, the partisan bickering, and the war room spin machines, but I do feel confident of this: with those few words, Michelle Obama brought back memories that reduced more than a few fathers to tears, and made all but the most stonehearted partisans realize that in some ways that really matter, Barack Obama is no different than they are.

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