Michelle Obama cleaned Mitt Romney’s clock last night. By recounting the sacrifices her family and her husband’s family made to give their children a better life, she put the lie to Republican claims that Democrats stand for entitlements and dependency.
Obama exemplifies the middle class values and aspirations that Republicans love to extol, but unlike them she understands the social context that makes personal success possible — supportive families and communities and public investments that give everyone a shot at opportunity. By emphasizing her own blue collar roots and work ethic, she made it clear she doesn’t need lectures from GOP trust fund babies about the threat moochers, free loaders and “takers” supposedly pose to U.S. prosperity.
Opportunity, responsibility, community – haven’t we heard Obama’s message somewhere before? In any case, it’s the right answer to the GOP’s chilly new brand of selfish, anti-social, and anything-but-compassionate conservatism.
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