Last night, during her keynote address at the Democratic Convention, First Lady Michelle Obama, in so many words, endorsed marriage equality:
Let me walk you through this. In her speech, Mrs. Obama listed six significant moments in America history:If farmers and blacksmiths could win independence from an empire…if immigrants could leave behind everything they knew for a better life on our shores…if women could be dragged to jail for seeking the vote…if a generation could defeat a depression, and define greatness for all time…if a young preacher could lift us to the mountaintop with his righteous dream…and if proud Americans can be who they are and boldly stand at the altar with who they love…then surely, surely we can give everyone in this country a fair chance at that great American Dream.
I mean, holy cow folks.1. The War for the Independence.
2. Mass immigration.
3. Women's Suffrage.
4. The Depression.
5. Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech.
6. DADT and Marriage Equality (I think the "be who they are" reference is DADT).
Keep in mind, this is the same day that the pro-Romney SuperPAC started running anti-Obama ads about gay marriage. It woud have been an opportune moment for the Obama folks to shove, at the very least, the gay marriage talk for another day, in order not to have "the gay" steal the news cycle on the First Lady's big day.
But guess what? They didn't.
In a million years I didn't expect the First Lady to mention anything gay during her speech, let alone marriage. But she did. And then didn't just mention marriage, she put our civil rights in the same category of history as Martin Luther King's "I haver a dream" and Women's Suffrage. That ain't nothin'.
I have to admit that during the speech I was wondering why she was getting so policy-ish. I had expected more of a warm and fuzzy speech like Mrs. Romney's. Then, when Mrs. Obama mentioned marriage, I saw it - they're going after the base. This entire convention is about bringing the base back home, including us.
We got much of we wanted from President Obama. It wasn't all of it. It wasn't easy. But it most definitely was enough. And in politics, I've always said: I don't care what you think of me, I care what you do for me.
And he did it.
And the other guy most definitely won't.
