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I have obtained an advance, annotated text of Michelle Obama’s convention speech tonight. As her water-carriers in the press have been reporting, the speech will introduce America to the “real” Michelle and Barack.
(Ok, here’s a bit of the real thing. And the full text is pasted below from Michelle and her brother, Craig Robinson. I was not far off!)
***
Good evening, my fellow Barack Americans!
I am Michelle Obama. (Pause for adulation. Frown at insufficient applause. Wait for more.)
I am just an ordinary working mom from an ordinary town. A “civilian” innocent in the ways of politics. Just like you.
(Well, except for my hard Left thesis-writing skills. And my hard-core Chicago family political ties. And my high-powered, $317,000-a-year affirmative action job. And my role in organizing the Woods Fund panel that Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers and Barack appeared on together.)
Some have referred to me as Obama’s “bitter half.”
But, really, truly, I am so grateful to be here tonight.
(Well, except for all the burdensome sacrifices I have been forced to make throughout this campaign in pursuit of the White House and my victimization at the hands of those wife-beating racist Republicans.)
I have made these inordinate sacrifices because Barack Obama is a real American, a Barack American, just like you.
Except when he’s not like you.
Because He is special. He is The One, my honey, my babies’ daddy, the soul-fixer we have all been waiting for.
Let me repeat: I am just the simple, ordinary, civilian spouse of The One trying to juggle my daughters’ expensive piano and ballet lessons with Access Hollywood interviews and People magazine photo shoots.
But I do know this: We are living in a historic moment, a moment that makes me prouder than any other moment I can recall in my adult lifetime as a citizen of this downright mean great country.
And I know that you need to celebrate his specialness, uniqueness, and everything he represents. You need to. You must.
(Translation: He’s black and if you don’t celebrate, you’re a bigot or a race traitor.)
Barack cares. I care. As an ordinary civilian mom, I share your concerns about access to health care. And so does Barack.
(As for that dump-the-sick policy at the University of Chicago which has enriched Barack’s countless campaign advisers, well, that is a distraction and a conversation that we don’t need to have because it doesn’t help my kids.)
I’ve warned you before and I will warn you again:
“Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your division. That you come out of your isolation. That you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual.”
That is a threat you can believe in.
Now, please join me in raising the Obama salute before I retreat back into my Cone of Protection from criticism for my public comments:
***
Update…
9:31pm Eastern…Ted Kennedy is on stage. “Nothing is going to keep me away from this special gathering tonight.” Plugs universal health care coverage. “Yes, we can.”
***
Michelle’s prepared text:
As you might imagine, for Barack, running for President is nothing compared to that first game of basketball with my brother Craig.
I can’t tell you how much it means to have Craig and my mom here tonight. Like Craig, I can feel my dad looking down on us, just as I’ve felt his presence in every grace-filled moment of my life.
At six-foot-six, I’ve often felt like Craig was looking down on me too…literally. But the truth is, both when we were kids and today, he wasn’t looking down on me – he was watching over me.
And he’s been there for me every step of the way since that clear February day 19 months ago, when – with little more than our faith in each other and a hunger for change – we joined my husband, Barack Obama, on the improbable journey that’s brought us to this moment.
But each of us also comes here tonight by way of our own improbable journey.
I come here tonight as a sister, blessed with a brother who is my mentor, my protector and my lifelong friend.
I come here as a wife who loves my husband and believes he will be an extraordinary president.
I come here as a Mom whose girls are the heart of my heart and the center of my world – they’re the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning, and the last thing I think about when I go to bed at night. Their future – and all our children’s future – is my stake in this election.
And I come here as a daughter – raised on the South Side of Chicago by a father who was a blue collar city worker, and a mother who stayed at home with my brother and20me. My mother’s love has always been a sustaining force for our family, and one of my greatest joys is seeing her integrity, her compassion, and her intelligence reflected in my own daughters.
My Dad was our rock. Although he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in his early thirties, he was our provider, our champion, our hero. As he got sicker, it got harder for him to walk, it took him longer to get dressed in the morning. But if he was in pain, he never let on. He never stopped smiling and laughing – even while struggling to button his shirt, even while using two canes to get himself across the room to give my Mom a kiss. He just woke up a little earlier, and worked a little harder.
He and my mom poured everything they had into me and Craig. It was the greatest gift a child can receive: never doubting for a single minute that you’re loved, and cherished, and have a place in this world. And thanks to their faith and hard work, we both were able to go on to college. So I know firsthand from their lives – and mine – that the American Dream endures.
And you know, what struck me when I first met Barack was that even though he had this funny name, even though he’d grown up all the way across the continent in Hawaii, his family was so much like mine. He was raised by grandparents who were working class folks just like my parents, and by a single mother who struggled to pay the bills just like we did. Like my family, they scrimped and saved so that he could have opportunities they never had themselves. And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you’re going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don’t know them, and even if you don’t agree with them.
And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and pass them on to the next generation. Because we want our children – and all children in this nation – to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.
And as our friendship grew, and I learned more about Barack, he introduced me to the work he’d done when he first moved to Chicago after college. Instead of heading to Wall Street, Barack had gone to work in neighborhoods devastated when steel plants shut down, and jobs dried up. And he’d been invited back to speak to people from those neighborhoods about how to rebuild their community.
The people gathered together that day were ordinary folks doing the best they could to build a good life. They were parents living paycheck to paycheck; grandparents trying to get by on a fixed income; men frustrated that they couldn’t support their familie s after their jobs disappeared. Those folks weren’t asking for a handout or a shortcut. They were ready to work – they wanted to contribute. They believed – like you and I believe – that America should be a place where you can make it if you try.
Barack stood up that day, and spoke words that have stayed with me ever since. He talked about “The world as it is” and “The world as it should be.” And he said that all too often, we accept the distance between the two, and settle for the world as it is – even when it doesn’t reflect our values and aspirations. But he reminded us that we know what our world should look like. We know what fairness and justice and opportunity look like. And he urged us to believe in ourselves – to find the strength within ourselves to strive for the world as it should be. And isn’t that the great American story?
It’s the story of men and women gathered in churches and union halls, in town squares and high school gyms – people who stood up and marched and risked everything they had – refusing to settle, determined to mold our future into the shape of our ideals.
It is because of their will and determination that this week, we celebrate two anniversaries: the 88th anniversary of women winning the right to vote, and the 45th anniversary of that hot summer day when Dr. King lifted our sights and our hearts with his dream for our nation.
I stand here today at the crosscurrents of that history – knowing that my piece of the American Dream is a blessing hard won by those who came before me. All of them driven by the same conviction that drove my dad to get up an hour early each day to painstakingly dress himself for work. The same conviction that drives the men and women I’ve met all across this country:
People who work the day shift, kiss their kids goodnight, and head out for the night shift – without disappointment, without regret – that goodnight kiss a reminder of everything they’re working for.
The military families who say grace each night with an empty seat at the table. The servicemen and women who love this country so much, they leave those they love most to defend it.
The young people across America serving our communities – teaching children, cleaning up neighborhoods, caring for the least among us each and every day.
People like Hillary Clinton, who put those 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling, so that our daughters – and sons – can dream a little bigger and aim a little higher.
People like Joe Biden, who’s never forgotten where he came from, and never stopped fighting for folks who work long hours and face long odds and need someone on their side again.
All of us driven by a simple belief that the world as it is just won’t do – that we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be.
That is the thread that connects our hearts. That is the thread that runs through my journey and Barack’s journey and so many other improbable journeys that have brought us here tonight, where the current of history meets this new tide of hope.
That is why I love this country.
And in my own life, in my own small way, I’ve tried to give back to this country that has given me so much. That’s why I left a job at a law firm for a career in public service, working to empower young people to volunteer in their communities. Because I believe that each of us – no matter what our age or background or walk of life – each of us has something to contribute to the life of this nation.
It’s a belief Barack shares – a belief at the heart of his life’s work.
It’s what he did all those years ago, on the streets of Chicago, setting up job training to get people back to work and afterschool programs to keep kids safe – working block by block to help people lift up their families.
It’s what he did in the Illinois Senate, moving people from welfare to jobs, passing tax cuts for hard working families, and making sure women get equal pay for equal work.
It’s what he’s done in the United States Senate, fighting to ensure the men and women who serve this country are welcomed home not just with medals and parades, but with good jobs and benefits and health care – including mental health care.
That’s why he’s running – to end the war in Iraq responsibly, to build an economy that lifts every family, to make health care available for every American, and to make sure every child in this nation gets a world class education all the way from preschool to college. That’s what Barack Obama will do as President of the United States of America.
He’ll achieve these goals the same way he always has – by bringing us together and reminding us how much we share and how alike we really are. You see, Barack doesn’t care where you’re from, or what your background is, or what party – if any – you belong to. That’s not how he sees the world. He knows that thread that connects us – our belief in America’s promise, our commitment to our children’s future – is strong enough to hold us together as one nation even when we disagree.
It was strong enough to bring hope to those neighborhoods in Chicago.
It was strong enough to bring hope to the mother he met worried about her child in Iraq; hope to the man who’s unemployed, but can’t afford gas to find a job; hope to the student working nights to pay for her sister’s heal th care, sleeping just a few hours a day.
And it was strong enough to bring hope to people who came out on a cold Iowa night and became the first voices in this chorus for change that’s been echoed by millions of Americans from every corner of this nation.
Millions of Americans who know that Barack understands their dreams; that Barack will fight for people like them; and that Barack will finally bring the change we need.
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.
So tonight, in honor of my father’s memory and my daughters’ future – out of gratitude to those whose triumphs we mark this week, and those whose everyday sacrifices have brought us to this moment – let us devote ourselves to finishing their work; let us work together to fulfill their hopes; and let us stand together to elect Barack Obama President of the United States of America.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.
***
EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY
Remarks of Craig Robinson-as prepared for delivery
Democratic National Convention
Denver, Colorado
Monday, August 25, 2008
Good evening, I’m Craig Robinson and Michelle Obama is my little sister.
Tonight, I don’t want to just introduce my sister, I want to introduce you to my sister. The girl I grew up with. The poised young woman I saw her grow in to. The compassionate mother, aunt and sister- in-law she is. The passionate voice for women and children she has become. And the type of first lady she will be.
Sometimes, when I look at the woman you are about to hear from, it’s funny to think that this is the same person who used to wake me up early, and I mean early, on Christmas morning - because we both had to be up at the same time, in order to open our presents.
This is the person who would play the piano to calm me down before all of my big games in high school.
This is the person who - even though we were allowed only one hour of television a night - somehow managed to commit to memory every single episode of the Brady Bunch.
But when I really think back, I can also see how the person she is today, was formed in the experiences we shared growing up: working hard, studying hard, having parents who wanted more for us than what they had. And always being reminded that in this country of all countries – those things were possible.
Neither of our parents went to college.
My father went to work right out of high school to help pay for his brother’s college tuition.
He worked at the water filtration plant for 30 years.
We lost my father in 1991.
And I know he’s looking down on us tonight, so proud of his daughter, not because of who she married, though he was a big fan of Barack – but because of the hard-working, brilliant woman she is, what she’s accomplished in her own right, the mother she’s become, and the values she’s instilled in her daughters.
My mother Marian is here tonight. She remains our family’s anchor, and the sole reason Michelle was willing to campaign at all was because she knows that Mom is there to help take care of the girls.
When we were young kids, our parents divided the bedroom we shared so we could each have our own room.
Many nights we would talk when we were supposed to be sleeping.
My sister always talked about who was getting picked on at school, or who was having a tough time at home.
I didn’t realize it then - but I realize it now - those were the people she was going to dedicate her life to: the people who were struggling with life’s challenges.
She has continued to follow that passion. She gave up a job in a big law firm to work in her community. With a group called Public Allies, she trained a new generation of community leaders.
She developed the University of Chicago’s community service center - connecting the university to the neighborhood that was blocks away - but often worlds away - from its gates.
< div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-autospace:none">And when I wasn’t happy doing what I was doing - investment banking - she was the one who encouraged me to go back to my first love - teaching and coaching.
And today I’m proud to be the coach of the Oregon State men’s basketball team. Go Beavs!
But she did take something away from that first big law firm job. A young lawyer by the name of Barack Obama.
My sister had grown up hearing my father and me talk about how to judge a person’s character by wha t type of sportsman they are, so she asked me to take Barack to play basketball.
If you’re looking for a political analysis based on his playing, here it is: he’s confident but not cocky, he’ll take the shot if he’s open, he’s a team player who improves the people around him, and he won’t back down from any challenge.
Together, I’ve watched Barack and Michelle strengthen each other. I’ve watched them create a home filled with love, and grounded in faith.
During challenging times I’ve watched Michelle and Barack stand by each other. And I know, they’ll stand by you — the American people=2 0– now and in the future.
So please join me in welcoming an impassioned public servant, a loving daughter, wife and mother, my little sister and our nation’s next first lady: Michele Obama.
End
###
“South Side Girl?” Hmmm…
