What we saw from Michelle Obama last night was what Ann Romney had aimed for but missed. As Peggy Noonan herself noted, Mrs. Romney failed to make it real-because she told us what a great guy Mitt was rather than showed us.
"Ann Romney was stunning, sweet, full of enthusiasm, a little shy, a little game for the battle. Her speech was fine. I think the headline was that she and Mitt got married young, lived in modest circumstances and struggled a bit while he studied and tried to get a foothold in business. But it was scattered, full of declarations — “Tonight I want to talk to you about love” — that weren’t built upon but abandoned. Strong as the impression of personal beauty is, I think she missed an opportunity."
"Here’s how I see it. I have just spent the past two and a half days talking to people who’ve known Mitt Romney well for ten, twenty and thirty years, even more. They love him, and in all their conversations they say either literally or between the lines, “If only you knew him like I do.” It is their mantra. They mean it, and they are so frustrated. They believe he is a person of unique and natural integrity, a kind man who will give you not only his money but his time, his energy. They see him as a leader. They know the public doesn’t see this. They don’t understand why. And, actually, I don’t blame them, because it really is a bit of a mystery. If he’s so good why can’t his goodness be communicated?"
"The opportunity Ann Romney missed was to provide first person testimony that is new, that hasn’t been spoken, that hasn’t been in the books and the magazine articles. She failed to make it new and so she failed to make it real."
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2012/09/peggy-noonan-ann-romney-fails-to-make.html
A big part of the problem is that Ann Romney lacks the experiences to talk to us like EveryWoman, because she's not. Neither she nor her husband have a clue about real Americans-yeah I said it.
"Like Ann Romney’s speech, Michelle Obama’s was heavy on biography. But where Ann Romney only cited “long, long rainy winter afternoons in a house with five boys screaming at once” to illustrate her personal difficulties, Michelle Obama drew on her father’s struggles with multiple sclerosis, his determination to pay her college tuition, Barack’s childhood being raised by a poor single mother and a grandmother who “hit a glass ceiling,” and the couple’s struggles with student debt. Of course, Michelle Obama had more material to draw on than Ann Romney did, but without mentioning the latter or her husband by name, Michelle Obama thoroughly bested Ann Romney’s attempts to connect with voters."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/an-excellent-speech-from-michelle-obama/2012/09/05/f245aa02-f72c-11e1-8b93-c4f4ab1c8d13_blog.html?hpid=z3
What I think the difference really is is that Ann Romney really can't relate to the average American woman or the average American, period. She doesn't understand our aspirations. She doesn't understand our struggles. Nor does she want to know.
She tried to say the right words, but mostly it was just stuff she got out of reading Redbook. When she pandered "I love you women!"she truly achieved the nadir of inauthenticity.
I mean the Obamas know what it is to struggle under the student loans. Yes, it's true that they were able to manage with their rise in income. But they had to work for it, they were far from born into it.
And the proof is in the pudding. Ann Romney's husband doesn't want any relief for r college students, if they struggle maybe they can borrow money from their parents. Mitt and Ann Romney don't know evidently that most Americans don't have trust funds.
Sorry, I know it may seem that I shouldn't be so hard on Ann Romney but I got to say, Michelle's the real deal, and Ann was just trying to sound like the real deal. Ann Romney told us but Michelle Obama showed us.
P.S. It's of course not impossible for someone from the Romneys privileged background to get it. One only needs look at the Kennedys and FDR. But that requires empathy. Everything we know about the Romneys highlights that this empathy is not one of their virtues. Just see Mitt in New Orleans telling a woman who lost her home to go back home and call 211.
Do not tell me is was just an honest mistake. It was a mistake but not the kind of mistake someone with empathy would ever make. Guaratee Bill Clinton-to mention the favorite person of the Republicans these days-would never in a million years make that mistake, nor would Ted Kennedy-love his line about Mitt as the multiple choice candidate-or Jimmy Carter who the GOP loves to run against though most Americans have a high opinon of the Octigenarian
It's the mistake of someone who doesn't give a crap. After all, Mitt Romney was there to poise for a photo-op and one up the President not to actually do anything for the people of Louisiana's welfare
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