Michelle in 2016!

"I want to elect a man who had the good sense to marry Michelle Obama."

~ Bill Clinton

Michelle Obama should be president.  Her speech Tuesday night at the Democratic National Convention was nothing short of awesome. It was interesting. It was moving. It was compelling. It was delivered in such a way that I didn’t want her to stop talking and when I heard the obligatory “God bless you and god bless America,” I found myself genuinely disappointed.

And not just because every speech delivered by a public official these days ends with that claptrap.

I was disappointed because I wanted to hear more about Barack and Michelle Obama. I wanted to hear more lines like, “How hard you work matters more than how much you make…helping others means more than just getting ahead yourself” and “Being president doesn’t change who you are – it reveals who you are.”

I wanted to hear more about her parents: her strong, wise mother and her determined father who, even though he had Multiple Sclerosis and struggled some days just to get out of bed, hardly ever missed a day of work because he wanted Michelle and her brother, Craig, to be able to go to college. That, Michelle said, was what he thought it meant to be a man.

I wanted to hear more about how Michelle’s husband thinks that “when you’ve worked hard and done well and walked through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you; you reach back and you give other folks the same chances that helped you succeed.”

I was glad to be reminded of Barack’s special qualities: his charm, intellect and commitment to making this country better. Of course it’s no surprise that Michelle would support her man but she did it with such eloquence, intelligence and passion that I was convinced all over again. I had gotten so tangled up in the disappointments of his presidency – extending the Bush tax cuts, admitting to a “shellacking” by Republicans on national television, breaking his promise to quickly shut down the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, accelerating drone strikes in Pakistan that have killed scores of innocent civilians and failing to bring Operation Enduring Freedom, America’s longest-running war in Afghanistan, to a close – that I forgot what a good guy he is at his core, overlooked the degree to which he’s been thwarted by unscrupulous Republicans in Congress, and let the pride I once felt that he was POTUS weaken.

Watching one of the best speeches ever delivered during a political convention, I was brought back into the fold. If Barack Obama can find, snag and keep someone as amazing and credible and talented and strong as this woman, can create a seemingly loving, scandal-free family with her, can become this country’s chief executive with her at his side – not behind him, but right next to him – then there’s something about him worth keeping in the White House.

I admit that I did not watch Michelle’s Republican counterpart, Ann Romney, support her man in a speech in Tampa on August 28. Frankly I don’t understand how any thinking woman can support Robotron Romney, who promised to “get rid” of Planned Parenthood, supported a proposal to allow employers to deny health insurance coverage for any benefit (including birth control) based on a “moral” conviction, and is in favor of a “personhood” amendment stating that life begins at conception (which could ban birth control and in vitro fertilization). To me, a female voting for Mitt Romney is kind of like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders. It makes no sense. (Don’t believe the GOP is waging war on women? Visit this link.)

I prefer the man who, as Michelle pointed out on Tuesday, “believes that women are more capable of making our own choices about our bodies and our health care.” I prefer the man who believes women shouldn’t be paid less than men and supports giving aid to victims of domestic violence and even thinks more would get done in Washington if more women were in Congress.

I have no idea what it’s like to be an attorney from Chicago, or a Harvard alum, or a person of color, or Commander in Chief and Leader of the Free World. But I know what it’s like to be a parent. I can relate to Barack and Michelle on that level. Although 14-year-old Malia and 11-year-old Sasha have largely been kept out of the public eye, I’ve been impressed by how poised and happy and well-behaved they’ve seemed the few times I’ve seen them. (No photos of brats sticking out their tongues through limousine windows. Not yet anyway.) My kids are poised and happy and well-behaved too. It’s cool to think I have this in common with the Obamas.

And Barack and I both lucked out in the spouse department.

Sources: Detroit Free Press, womenarewatching.org, politicususa.com, politico.com.