Here's some random thoughts I have about Michelle Obama's "Tired of being Afraid" speech:

If I were a person who taught others how to give a speech {which I'm not}, I'd direct them to study Michelle Obama "Tired of Being Tired" speech.

That speech started with Michelle Obama saying that she came to the Iowa fair to buy something on a stick-a hot dog or a candy bar {I think she said a Snicker's bar, but I'm not going to "cheat" and watch the video again to find out if this was the brand name of the candy on a stick that she mentioned}.

In my opinion, this lighthearted beginning {that I consider the preface to her main remarks} served to endear her to her audience and convey the message that Ms. Obama and, by extension, her husband Barack Obama, were "just like other folks".

This message was reinforced by Michelle's {and Barack's} informal attire. As a woman, I noticed that Michelle Obama didn't appear to ahve on any makeup and her hair was worn in a style that wasn't fancy. I liked that. I mean who goes to a country fair dressed in fancy clothes and expensive shoes? {Well, you know the answer to that one}.

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Michelle Obama warmed up the crowd before she got "fired up". And when Michelle got fired up, she fired up the crowd. I noticed that Michelle Obama personalized her comments by making references to how she loves her husband and feels that he is special. {Hey, everybody loves to see happy, loving couples, right?} Unlike former Vice President Gore's kissing his wife on stage after she introduced him, Brack Obama and his wife gave each other a two handed high five, and he kissed her on the cheek. I liked that, and I think that Iowa crowd did too.

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The idea of a US President and First Lady raising young children in the White House has a warm John Kennedyish feel to it. I think that Michelle tapped into that good feeling without exploiting her and Barack's two daughters. She didn't bring them up on stage to show them off-at least the video didn't show that. If she had brought her children onstage, or if Barack Oobama had done so, I think that would have been a "turn off". I'm tired of politicians showing off their children, and their grandchildren to fake like they have family values, and then they go off-stage and write policies, or support policies that are anti-family. Or they fail to vote for education policies, and health care policies, and employment policies, and environmental policies, and other policies would help children & families. Yeah, to paraphrase Fannie Lou Hamer, I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired of that.

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Here's another way that I think that Michelle Obama reinforced the message that "I'm just like you". She referred to Barack Obama as "my husband" or as "Barack" and not as "Senator Obama". The use of that title would have set her and Barack Obama apart from her {and his} audience. And I wouldn't be surprised to learn that there probably is a distaste & distrust for politicians in Iowa as there is in other parts of this country. What thinking person wouldn't have a distaste and distrust of government nowadays due to the scandals, corruption, illegalities, favoritism, and cronyism that exists from the top of this government on down?

By putting aside his title as US senator, and instead, calling him "my husband" or "Barack", Michelle Obama reinforced the image that Barack Obama is not one of those politicians, but a person {hudband/father} who cares about what "regular" folks care about and, if he is elected President, will restore decency and respect at home and abroad in & for the White House.

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I notice that people have gotten into the habit of calling Barack Obama by his first name and Michelle Obama by her first name. This reinforces the message that Obama is "a regular person". I think that the fact that Obama is of mixed Black/White ancestry [which, in the USA, if not elsewhere, means that he is a Black man] makes it even more important to convey the sense that as Obama and his wife have the same positive core values as most Americans. Michelle's statement that she & her husband want a better, safer world for their daughters also reinforced this "I'm just like you" message.

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I think that it wasn't only what Michelle Obama said, but how she said it. Michelle appeared to speak from her heart. I didn't get a sense that this was a set speech that she memorized ahead of time [though some or all of that speech may have been memorized}. Also, it appears from the media coverage, that this was the first time that Michelle Obama had given that speech. And if she gave that same speech over and over again using the same words, it seems to me that that would greatly diminish that speech's impact. Using the sentence "I'm tired of being afraid" is one thing. But repeating the same exact speech is a whole 'nuther thing.

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The way that Michelle Obama gave this "I'm tired of being afraid" speech" reminded me of the oratory style of Black Baptist ministers-not the fire & brimestone type, but the Black ministers who know how to move the audience by the cadence of their words, the repetition & development of central themes, the appeal to the emotions-all of that was in Michelle's speech. Perhaps that's why this "I'm tired of being afraid" speech reminded me of the speeches of another great orator-Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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This was the first time that I heard Michelle Obama. And if it sounds like I'm very impressed by her-you got that right.