2 The Hampton Roads Messenger


Volume 10 Number 12 Your Opinion Matters


Dear Michelle Obama, Never Leave. Sincerely, Everyone.


BY JASON JOHNSON


I'm not unique when I say I have had a long and special relationship with first lady Michelle Obama. It started way back in 2008 when I got so many robocalls from her to get out and vote that I thought Barack might get jealous. In the last eight years, that nonex-


istent fantasy relationship has grown as I’ve watched her conquer the talk show circuit and advocate for healthy kids and military families, as well as be ar- guably the only member of the Obama administration who is resistant to Re- publican attacks. Just about every Afri- can American—Republican, Democrat, conservative or liberal—has formed a special bond with this first lady. A wom- an who, regardless of the invective and hatred swirling around her husband and his administration, has remained one of the most statistically popular women in American politics.


times in my political career, I welled up last night while watching Michelle Obama give her last Democratic Na- tional Convention speech as the first lady of the United States. Not just because it was the best speech of the night, but because we will never see someone else like her in our lifetimes. The Democratic convention is a long and complicated place to spend time, let alone observe changing poli- tics. Philadelphia is having a heat wave this week, everyone is swelter- ing, and the logistics of moving from various events to actually getting into the convention are like the worst city- wide escape-the-room game you’ve ever been in. However, in the midst of all of this, there was one name that people were buzzing about throughout the day: Michelle Obama. While there


talks of unity on the ground, through- out the city it was FLOTUS whom more people were excited to see, more so than either Sens. Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, which is telling. People wanted to hear what Sanders had to say, they wanted to hear what Warren had to say, but folks just want- ed to make sure that they were in the room when Michelle Obama got on- stage to talk.


If you have never had the chance to see Michelle Obama speak live,


MICHELLE OBAMA PAGE 14 were, of course, Which is why, for one of the few


August 2016


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