Michelle
Obama at the Democratic National Convention, Sept. 4.
The Metamorphosis of First Lady Obama (La Stampa, Italy)
"At the
Democratic National Convention, she left the stage to a standing ovation, with
her head bowed, without overdoing it - aware, perhaps, that the true revolution
can be found in her, a girl from the Black ghetto standing at the heart of
White power, and that the game is not yet over."
CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA: At the Democratic National
Convention, she took the stage to reassure the nation's Democrats that her
husband hasn't changed, that power has not corrupted his character or his
convictions, and that Barack Obama is still the same man that she fell in love
with years ago - a man bound by his ideals who would pick her up for dates “in
a car so rusted out, I could actually see the pavement going by in a hole in
the passenger side door.” But if Obama has remained the same, it is you, Michelle,
who are a different person.
Four years ago, before arriving at the White House and
before the presidential race, Michelle Robinson was a woman with a radical
creed, who spoke with a loud voice. Ironic, sharp-tongued, and sarcastic, she
had some severe and unpleasant things to say about America. Her personal story
clearly distinguishes her from her husband's: no Hawaii, no White mother and
grandparents like Barack. Instead, her father was a blue-collar worker, and she
experienced the hardships of growing up in the Black ghetto of Chicago.
Instead, on stage at the Democratic National Convention in
Charlotte, she spoke in a soft, and in some moments an almost imperceptible
voice, and had a polite, persuasive manner: perfect "first lady"
poise. Following in the footsteps of Laura Bush and particularly Hillary
Clinton, who was forced to abandon her hopes for reform and swallow humiliation
in order to the save her husband’s presidency (she then remade herself by
playing her own political game), Michelle was introduced by a video montage [watch below] in
which she appeared with soldiers' families, with her daughters, in the garden,
and with kids doing gymnastics or playing with a hula-hoop. It provided an
image of her as never too aggressive or assertive, but rather fun and naïve,
even to the point of appearing restrained. In the end she even defined herself
as “mom-in-chief,” which is like saying she is the "First Mom" of
America - she, the woman who used to identify herself as a lawyer, who taught
Barack Obama what social engagement, community, and civil rights mean. And in
order to underline that family is at the heart of everything - to avoid leaving
any copyright space for the woman who would like to take her place, that Ann
Romney, who is considered the model "angel of the hearth" - she said
that her daughters are "the heart of her heart and the center of her
world."
It’s incredible to think that when I first met her in
Plymouth, New Hampshire, in January 2008, she impressed me with her ambitious,
radical, almost uncompromising strength of character. Even her handshake, very unlike
her husband’s, was vigorous. And then she had a way of staring you in the eyes,
never granting a concession to the interlocutor. A meeting with a group of
teachers and pensioners was held in a garage, around a table with about 50
seats. She spoke off the cuff for exactly 60 minutes and there was complete
silence as she spoke of how the country was “broken”: “Life is becoming more
difficult for people, but we can’t even manage to grasp that, stuck as we are
living with our heads underwater.” She denounced America as a country “that
can’t manage to pay tuition fees, that when it gets sick it goes bankrupt, that
never eats vegetables and healthy foods. Every year it gets more difficult for
normal people to manage to live a decent life, and yet we are a rich country,
but the boom only affected a few.”
Posted
by Worldmeets.US
At the end she stopped and spoke to me about how concerned she
felt about moving to the White House, afraid that her daughters would have to
sacrifice a lot by being forced into an unconventional, overprotected
lifestyle. Still today she admits to having been worried, but now she believes
that it’s worth staying there, because it is the place where one can make a
difference: “Because success cannot be measured by the amount of money you’ve
earned, but by the difference that you’ve managed to make in people’s lives.”
One might say, rudely, that Michelle has become part of the
bourgeoisie, considering that living in the White House is not something one
easily turns down, and that her former life in their Chicago home is a thing of
the past. She has certainly become more diplomatic, understands what Americans
want to hear, doesn’t want to ruin her husband’s chances of reelection, and her
demeanor is more polished. But there is something else: she knows that her goals
will disappear from the agenda if the Republicans win, and there’s no
alternative. Thus, although very politely, she pointed out and reminded voters
what they have been working for over the past four years: the right women to
the same pay as men, the first law that Obama passed, the right to affordable
health care, the right to earn a degree without drowning in debt, the right of
each person to freely make decisions about his or her own body and health
(implying the right to abortion), the right of immigrants to follow the
American dream, and the right to love whoever you want (thereby expressing
support for gay marriage).
She never once mention the opponents, and indeed she
appeared almost unwilling to do so. But in the list of values and principles she
and her husband inherited from their families growing up, she underscored an
almost anthropological difference: dignity, humility, gratitude and integrity.
And as if echoing the debate surrounding Romney’s tax evasion and the money he
has stashed away in tax havens, she said that being honest also means, “that
you don’t take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules.”
Four years ago, when she left that garage unescorted and with
a group of volunteers, she climbed into an old gray van with a side door that
didn’t close properly. But at the convention, she left the stage to a standing
ovation, with her head bowed, without overdoing it - aware, perhaps, that the
true revolution can be found in her, a girl from the Black ghetto standing at
the heart of White power, and that the game is not yet over.
