This convention so far has been all about Bernie Sanders and his frustrated, emotional, very vocal supporters. But a Pew Research survey finds that 90 percent of unwavering Sanders supporters plan to vote for Clinton.The star of Monday tonight's lineup was Michelle Obama (honorable mention going to Sarah Silverman), with Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker having moments of their own. The First Lady gave what may be remembered as a speech for the ages, Sanders' Monday address was mostly his stump speech, with one key difference: he added that "Hillary Clinton must become the next president of the United States."
Democrats sought to regain control of their party’s convention in Philadelphiaon Monday, with impassioned pleas for unity by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and first lady Michelle Obama, who urged supporters to endorse presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton.“Any objective observer will conclude that – based on her ideas and her leadership – Hillary Clinton must become the next president of the United States,” Sanders said.
Michelle Obama: An absolute home run. Period. It will be difficult for anyone in the next three days to deliver a better speech than the first lady did on Monday night. She used her personal story of raising two young African American girls in the White House to tie her husband's history-making presidency to the history-making bid of Hillary Clinton. She was poised, calm and convincing. When she teared up talking about what it would mean to her, Malia and Sasha to see a woman elected president, it was an instantly memorable moment. Watch it here.
VOX
VOX
This was a speech about why the Obamas mattered — what they meant to America, and especially to its black community. It was a speech about what it would be like to be given the choice to replace the first black president with the first woman — and instead choose someone best known for racism, misogyny, and personal cruelty.
That’s what made the speech so powerful. It framed the election as a choice not between people — but between the best parts of American history and the worst.
"I realized that our time in the White House would form the foundation for who they would become, and how well we managed this experience could truly make or break them. That is what Barack and I think about every day as we try to guide and protect our girls through the challenges of this unusual life in the spotlight, how we urge them to ignore those who question their father’s citizenship or faith."
Obama is reminding us that Trump’s career in politics began as a leading "birther" — a tribune of a movement aiming to define the first black president as un-American. And she’s connecting that to her own children, to the idea that racist attacks on her husband aren’t just hurtful — they send a message to black children that they aren’t welcome in this country.
Her message wasn’t just about Trump’s racism but also his overall cruelty. "When someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you don’t stoop to their level," she says. "No, our motto is, when they go low, we go high."
So the implicit question in the speech is this: Do you want that role model to be a person who mocks reporters with disabilities? Calls Mexicans rapists? Calls women "fat pigs" and mocks them for having periods?
Obama didn’t need to list off these incidents by name — Trump’s vicious personality is, at this point, well-known. In fact, she never mentioned Trump by name.
