The DNC, Day One

I thought Michelle Obama was great last night.  It's no small thing to go out on a convention stage and look fantastic and captivate the hall and the TV audience.  I don't share her exalted view of her subject, but of course it's a political wife's job to make her husband look good.

I did notice the same thing tic that Ann Althouse noticed:

Then — this seems near the end — she starts doing this fake stuttering (as if she's talkin' 'bout my g-g-g-g-generation): "A-a-and he reminds me, he reminds me that we are playing a long game here..." (Meade says: "Not 9 holes, it's 18 holes.")"A-a-a-and that change is hard. A-a-a-and change is slow and it never happens all at once but that eventually we get there. We always do. W-w-w-w-we get there, because of folks like my dad." (Earlier in the speech she described her father.) "Folks like Barack's grandmother. Men and women who-who said to themselves, I-I may not have a chance to fulfill my dreams, but maybe my children will, maybe my grandchildren will. See-see-see, so many of us stand here tonight because of their sacrifice...." Arghhhh! This is the same thing we heard last week. It's so earnest. Stage-y earnest. But what does it say? Who should be President?!

Each instance was minor, but cumulatively it seemed annoying and fake.

And tonight we have Bill Clinton.  Will he move the needle for Obama, or will he pull a Chris Christie and make it all about him?  He'll no doubt be a big hit in Charlotte, but will Clinton nostalgia just remind independents how dreary the Obama years have been in comparison?  And of course, the press will be ready to pounce on any sign that Clinton is undermining Obama to lay the groundwork for Hillary in 2016.  They love that angle.

I share the house with a Giants fan, so we'll likely be switching back and forth.  (It's nice to have something to change the channel to when the gas-baggery becomes too much to bear.)