By Jessica Kerman
April 16, 2008 11:37 pm
—
ANDERSON — Hilary Hughel, 15, cannot vote in the May primary or the November general election, but she was excited to be in Reardon Auditorium on Wednesday waiting for Michelle Obama to speak.
“I just really came to see,” she said. “It’s history.”
Hilary and her 18-year-old sister were part of the 900-person crowd at Anderson University who cheered and applauded and welcomed the wife of presidential candidate Barack Obama to the city.
“I know that Wednesday night, most of you should be in church,” she said. “But you’re here, and I’m grateful, and I’m sure that the Lord will look upon you kindly.”
Michelle Obama spent the first half of her speech discussing the process it took for her husband to get as far as he has so far.
“My husband, if you haven’t been paying attention, is running for president,” she joked. “And he’s been engaged in this pursuit for a little over a year.”
Challenge after challenge, Barack Obama, Democrat senator from Illinois, has overcome the obstacles set before him and set up an efficient, grassroots effort to run for president, Michelle Obama said.
“The American people are hungry for change,” she said. “They’re hungry from something different. They know we can do better, and they are looking and exploring and engaging in this process in a way that we haven’t see in a long time. People all over this country are standing in lines to attend political rallies.”
Parents are engaging their children in the process, the mother-of-two continued.
“Folks are sitting around the TV as a family, watching presidential debates,” she said. “People are sitting around the kitchen table talking about superdelegates and pledged delegates. ... This is a good thing, this engagement. This is a how democracy is supposed to work. And whether people are supporting Barack or someone else, this is good for the country.”
The goal, or bar, for people who live in the United States continually moves, making people frustrated, Michelle Obama said.
“(People are) pushing and struggling to meet a bar that is ever-shifting and moving; they can’t catch it, so they’re frustrated and afraid and angry and a whole lot of other words,” she said as the audience laughed at her reference to the recent media controversy about her husband’s description of “bitter” people in small towns.
Voters become cynical when they continually struggle, she said, and they become isolated when they are having troubles.
“We’re divided and isolated,” she said.
The division makes the public more susceptible to fear, creating negative energy that affects the next generation.
“And they’re watching us,” she said. “And we’re raising a nation of young people that are timid and doubtful and limited. ... And they’ve stopped trying, and I don’t want that for my girls.”
Michelle Obama spent much of the speech talking about how she was raised by a blue-collar worker on the southside of Chicago, and how her husband was raised by a single, teenage, white mother in the 1960s.
“There were no silver spoons in Barack Obama’s life,” she said.
The candidate’s plan includes ideas to create universal health care, to make college more affordable, to improve public education and several other key talking points, Michelle Obama said. Opponents have questioned his abilities because of his young age and number of years of experience, she said.
“The question isn’t about whether Barack is ready,” she said. “The question is about us. ... Change starts within all of us. We cannot expect difference if we’re doing the same thing. That’s why we need you more than ever.”
People need to set aside their differences, put away the cynicism and be ready to unify and work for a change, Michelle Obama said, and then the country can change.
“If you’re ready for that kind of change, then the only person in this race you can possibly consider is Barack Obama,” she said.
Mayor Kris Ockomon, who sat in the front row, said he thought Michelle Obama spoke about issues people in the community were facing.
“Obviously, I’ve come out in public and endorsed Hillary (Clinton),” he said. “I was impressed by (Michelle Obama’s) ability to relate to the public in a genuine way.”
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.