PHILADELPHIA (CN) — Michelle Obama electrified the Democratic National Convention Monday night heralding the greatness of the nation in a very personal way, noting how it's evolved from a country where "generations ... felt the lash of bondage" to one where she can "wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves ... and watch my daughters, two beautiful, intelligent, black young women playing with their dogs on the White House lawn."
Even before the first lady stopped speaking, the pundits in the Wells Fargo Center where already hailing her mediation on the triumph of America as among the best speeches in political memory.
On a day when many Democrats, both on the convention floor and at home in their living rooms, was consumed by seemingly unbridgeable division between supporters of nominee Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Michele Obama grabbed hold of Donald Trump and the GOP's dark vision of America, wrung it out and hung it out to dry, framing America's diversity as its strength and the key to its progress.
"Don't let anyone ever tell you that this country isn't great, that somehow we need to make it great again. Because this right now is the greatest country on earth," Obama said to thunderous applause inside the arena.
"And as my daughters prepare to set out into the world, I want a leader who is worthy of that truth, a leader who is worthy of my girls' promise and all our kids' promise, a leader who will be guided every day by the love and hope and impossibly big dreams that we all have for our children," she said.
Obama warned her fellow Democrats that 2016 was not the time to "sit back and hope that everything works out for the best."
"We cannot afford to be tired or frustrated or cynical. No, hear me. Between now and November, we need to do what we did eight years ago and four years ago," the first lady said.
"We need to knock on every door, we need to get out every vote, we need to pour every last ounce of our passion and our strength and our love for this country into electing Hillary Clinton as president of the United States of America."
As much of a clarion call as her remarks were, she also took care to bring the soaring vision she was creating to a human level.
She recalled for instance, her family's first days in the White House in the winter of 2009.
"When they set off for their first day at their new school, I will never forget that winter morning as I watched our girls, just 7 and 10 years old, pile into those black SUVs with all those big men with guns," Obama said. "And I saw their little faces pressed up against the window, and the only thing I could think was, 'what have we done?'"
The first lady said it was at that moment that she realized "our time in the White House would form the foundation for who they would become and how well we managed this experience could truly make or break them."
