Michelle Obama [Bryan]

As I was watching Michelle Obama's speech at the Democratic convention tonight, I realized one important reason why I support Obama: he and his family are real to me in a sense that no other politician has been.

Michelle and Barack Obama both come from loving families. They both come from blue collar backgrounds -- their families worried about money and about paying bills, just like I do. From what I've seen and read, they believe in hard work, in being good parents, in going to church, in earning your own way, and in staying true and faithful to each other. They love language, education, and, of course, basketball. They are, in fact, the opposite of the "elitist celebrity" picture that their opponents try to paint of them. They are ordinary in a sense that seems very real to me.

Best part of the convention so far (I love it when little Sasha grabs the mike and goes off-script):


Best part of Michelle Obama's speech:

And in the end, after all that's happened these past 19 months, the Barack Obama I know today is the same man I fell in love with 19 years ago. He's the same man who drove me and our new baby daughter home from the hospital ten years ago this summer, inching along at a snail's pace, peering anxiously at us in the rearview mirror, feeling the whole weight of her future in his hands, determined to give her everything he'd struggled so hard for himself, determined to give her what he never had: the affirming embrace of a father's love.

And as I tuck that little girl and her little sister into bed at night, I think about how one day, they'll have families of their own. And one day, they – and your sons and daughters – will tell their own children about what we did together in this election. They'll tell them how this time, we listened to our hopes, instead of our fears. How this time, we decided to stop doubting and to start dreaming. How this time, in this great country – where a girl from the South Side of Chicago can go to college and law school, and the son of a single mother from Hawaii can go all the way to the White House – we committed ourselves to building the world as it should be.