Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders Turn Day One Of The DNC Into A Success

After the DNC email scandal that resulted in the resignation of DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic Party needed for day one of the convention to be a success.  The one challenge that stood in their way at the start of the 2016 DNC was the amount of passionate and stout Bernie Sanders supporters, not yet ready to throw their support to Hillary Clinton. Although Sanders lost in the primaries to Clinton and has chosen to endorse her, many of his supporters are still in love with the revolution he started among American voters.  In an effort to help unite the party, both Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders gave great speeches expressing their support for Clinton.

Nearing the end of her term as First Lady, Michelle Obama is not new to public speaking and last night, Mrs. Obama's speech was very touching.  In her speech, she talked about the experience of raising her daughters in the White House and that whomever becomes the next President will have a significant impact on our childrens' futures.  I could not agree more because while each party's platform and policy is essential to the government, I want to vote for a candidate I can respect and someone who will represent the American people in the best way possible.  Additionally, Mrs. Obama said, "our motto, when they go low, we go high."  Clearly, she is calling out Donald Trump and his polarizing , and in my opinion, often hateful and ignorant comments.

Photo by WisPolitics.com (Creative Commons license)

Even without explicitly mentioning Donald Trump during her speech, Mrs. Obama knew exactly how to target his campaign.  One of my favorite quotes from her speech in which she was describing who she looks for in a President: "Someone who understands that the issues a President faces are not black and white, and cannot be boiled down to 140 characters."  Trump seems to largely control his own Twitter account to go after the Clinton campaign, to quickly express his views, and to endlessly use the #MakeAmericaGreatAgain even though, in my opinion, he has no clear plan on how to accomplish this other than building a wall on the US-Mexico border.

Lastly, Michelle Obama helped quell the Bernie supporters by saying that in 2008 when Clinton lost in the primaries to Barack Obama, "Hillary did not pack up and go home...so she proudly stepped up to serve our country once again as Secretary of State."  Personally, watching Michelle Obama's speech last night gave me chills and she proved that she is truly an asset to the Clinton campaign.

The one word I would use to describe Sanders speech last night: emotional.  He even told his many supporters that "I think it's fair to say that no one is more disappointed than I am."  Before Sanders started his speech, the crowd gave him a standing ovation, one that left Sanders somewhat teary eyed and at a loss for words for a few moments.  Sanders knew that the DNC email scandal pushed many of his supporters further away from Clinton. so during his speech he had to show support for Clinton.  Sanders told delegates "any objective observer will conclude that-based on her ideas and leadership-Hillary Clinton must become the next President of the United States." I suppose if Sanders really wanted to, he could have mirrored Cruz's actions towards Trump at the RNC, but Sanders knew that without his endorsement and support, the Democratic Party would not easily unite.

Photo by Phil Roeder (Creative Commons license)

While I associate day one of the 2016 RNC with Melania's plagiarized speech, I will remember day one of the 2016 DNC as a night of inspiring speeches that brought the Democratic Party closer together. Now that, Mr. Trump, is how you pull off a successful first day of a convention.

To read more about Michelle Obama's speech, read this article from Politico.
To read more about Bernie Sanders's speech, read this article from CNN.