First Lady Michelle Obama took the stage to thunderous applause at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night, and delivered a speech that hit all the right personal notes, but was also surprisingly long on substance. While recounting the values that she and “Barack” grew to share, Mrs. Obama also made important connections between those values and President Obama‘s achievements. 
 
 There were also a few possible veiled shots at Republican candidate Mitt Romney. 
 
 The First Lady framed her speech as the story of how she feared her husband’s presidency might change him, versus how it actually did (“I have seen firsthand that being president doesn’t change who you are,” she concluded. “No, it reveals who you are.”), and wove it together with stories of their family histories, of struggle and sacrifice, and of the sometimes stingy rewards of hard work. There were also colorful threads about the young future president’s rusted-out car and too-small shoes, but Mrs. Obama largely avoided the treacly pitfalls of the spouse’s speech, in favor of crystal clear, passionate advocacy for her husband’s work, and the values that guide it. 
 
 In describing the lessons she and her husband took from their respective upbringing, the First Lady delivered what might seem, to some, like veiled shots at Republican rival Mitt Romney, whose tremendous wealth, and secrecy about it, have earned him heavy criticism. 
 
 “We learned about dignity and decency,” she said. “That how hard you work matters more than how much you make. That helping others means more than just getting ahead of yourself. We learned about honesty and integrity. That the truth matters. That you don’t take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules. And success doesn’t count unless you earn it fair and square.” 
 
 Mrs. Obama sounded a similar note later in the speech, but this time, in almost poetic fashion. “For Barack,” she said, “success isn’t about how much money you make, it’s about the difference you make in people’s lives.” 
 
 As a writer, this was probably my favorite line of the entire speech, but politically speaking, it’s a tossup as to whether the sentiment, lovely on the lips, gets any traction on the ground. 
 
 She connected the personal threads of her story with things like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the President’s efforts to keep federal student aid available and affordable, and his health care reform law. 
 
 “When it comes to the health of our families,” the First Lady said, “Barack refused to listen to all those folks who told him to leave health reform for another day, another president. He didn’t care whether it was the easy thing to do politically. No, that’s not how he was raised. He cared that it was the right thing to do. He did it because in America, our grandparents should be able to afford their medicine. Our kids should be able to see a doctor when they’re sick. And no one in this country should ever go broke because of an accident or an illness.” 
 
 Then, to a raucous ovation, Mrs. Obama said “And he believes that women are more than capable of making our own choices about our bodies and our health care. That’s what my husband stands for.” 
 
 It was a wonderful performance by the First Lady, perhaps as everyone would expect from a woman of her extensive experience, but it will be interesting to see how the media’s reactions to it compare with the gonzo enthusiasm generated by Ann Romney’s speech at the RNC. 
 
 Here’s the speech from MSNBC: ||||| She’s certainly not a “secret” weapon in the same way Republicans say Ann Romney is, but Michelle Obama is still a weapon — one of the strongest the Democrats have. 
 
 The first lady is key in the Democrats’ effort to energize and turn out their grassroots supporters, and that’s what she’ll be aiming to accomplish with the opening speech at the Democratic National Convention this year. 
 
 
 
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 A recent poll showed Barack Obama with a 53 percent favorability rating — close to 66 percent among Democrats. Michelle Obama will not need to convince the Democratic base that her husband is a good guy, nor introduce him and her family to voters, two tasks she performed admirably in 2008. 
 
 This time, her job will be tougher. She will have to sell her husband’s vision to voters, while the economic recovery sputters dubiously along and 2008’s promised changes take longer than expected. 
 
 
 
 Lisa Burns, a professor of communications at Quinnipiac University who has studied first ladies throughout history, said that Michelle has played a role similar to that of Laura Bush during her husband’s reelection campaign. 
 
 
 
 “Laura Bush was always incredibly popular. Even during the reelection campaign, when her husband’s numbers had dipped, they were able to send her out there as someone whom people liked and someone whom people respected,” she said. 
 
 
 
 Anita McBride, executive in residence at American University’s Department of Government and formerly chief of staff to Laura Bush, agreed, and suggested that Michelle’s convention speech could serve the same purpose as Laura’s did during the 2004 Republican convention. 
 
 
 
 That speech “was widely regarded as a pivotal moment for a lot of people — particularly women, who were really on the fence about someone whom they perceived to be aggressive,” she said. 
 
 
 
 During the speech, Laura offered a behind-the-scenes description of her husband’s decisionmaking process, humanizing the president and portraying him as a measured, deliberate commander in chief. 
 
 
 
 Just as Laura’s task was to sell voters on the pre-eminent challenge of Bush’s presidency — the war on terror — Michelle will need to sell voters on Obama’s vision for the economy. 
 
 
 
 Four years ago, such a chore did not seem feasible for a woman whom many Americans did not yet know and many with conservative leanings did not quite trust. 
 
 
 
 For much of her husband’s primary campaign, Michelle was regarded with suspicion and often derision by conservative commentators. She had been referred to as her husband’s “bitter half,” had appeared on the cover of the National Review with the headline “Mrs. Grievance” and was rumored to have called white people “whitey.” 
 
 
 
 But according to New York Times correspondent Jodi Kantor, who profiled the first couple in her book The Obamas, Michelle made a concerted effort in the middle of the 2008 campaign to revamp her campaigning style, and changed some people’s minds. 
 
 
 
 “Friends from Chicago say the Michelle Obama you see on the campaign trail is authentic. They recognize the warmth — what’s been edited out is her forcefulness,” Kantor said. 
 
 
 
 Michelle, Kantor points out, has always been disciplined on the trail: She gives essentially the same stump speech, always mentions her upbringing, and rarely takes chances on off-the-cuff remarks. 
 
 
 
 That discipline has paid off. Michelle’s favorable rating has remained high, and might explain why she’s now considered by the Obama campaign “the closer” — the one campaigner who can gin up grassroots support and enthusiasm to the same degree as the president himself. 
 
 
 
 That was a role she came to play in 2008, and one the campaign says she’s reprising this time around with the “It Takes One” initiative, which aims to expand the president’s base. 
 
 
 
 “During the last campaign, the first lady was better at rallying support around the president than anyone else. She started out going from living room to living room in Iowa, and later from crowd to crowd in states around the country, talking about the president’s values and vision for the country. And she convinced people one by one that he could win with their support,” said Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter, adding that she is doing much the same work this time around. 
 
 
 
 Michelle has appeared at numerous campaign events and more than 80 fundraisers since last spring, according to information provided by her staff. At most events, she offers hugs and anecdotes of family life in the White House, as well as the story of her background and her and her husband’s efforts to improve the lives of Americans. 
 
 
 
 The first lady’s personal initiatives, too, have been politically salient: Polls have indicated Mitt Romney has outperformed President Obama with married women, and mothers are more skeptical of the president than are women without children. But Michelle’s Let’s Move! initiative, which focuses on healthy eating for families, is a way for her to connect to those women. And though Republicans traditionally win the military vote, Michelle’s focus on veterans’ issues could help her husband move the needle with that voting bloc as well. 
 
 
 
 Just as in 2008, Michelle faces pressure to perform at this year’s convention. But McBride said the mere fact of her point of view — that of a behind-the-scenes observer, and the person closest to the president — will make this speech an easier sell. 
 
 
 
 “She’s going to make a great case for him, having watched him from the human side of his presidency,” she said.
– Michelle Obama's speech to the Democratic National Convention is being widely hailed as a triumph. Even many conservative pundits praised her performance, while some of the giddier Democrats are now hoping she plans her own run for office. She "knocked it out of the park" by delivering "a series of devastating contrasts with the Romney family and policy agenda, cloaked in the bromides of wifely love," writes Garance Franke-Rute at the Atlantic. Michelle "reminded that she hasn't just been growing vegetables in the White House garden—she's been sharpening her political skills, too." Michelle "turned in a masterful showing, delivering a subtly yet distinctly political speech without seeming to do so," writes Guy Benson at Townhall.com. "It remains to be seen whether her uber-personal reintroduction of 'Barack' will sway too many viewers, but I think she did everything she could on her husband's behalf." "In a cloyingly theatrical modern tradition, first ladies attend the national conventions to testify about biography, not policy," writes Irin Carmon at Salon. But Michelle "managed to effortlessly marshal both to tell a story about change in America—with the promise of more to come—and to deliver her speech transcendently." Michelle "largely avoided the treacly pitfalls of the spouse’s speech, in favor of crystal clear, passionate advocacy for her husband’s work, and the values that guide it," writes Tommy Christopher at Mediaite. His favorite line was: "Success isn’t about how much money you make, it’s about the difference you make in people’s lives," though "it’s a tossup as to whether the sentiment, lovely on the lips, gets any traction on the ground."