CNN’s Abby Phillips probably meant it as a compliment when she said immediately after Michelle Obama’s speech on the first day of the Democratic National Convention that the former first lady looked “frustrated.”
Gloria Borger, a colleague of Phillips, likewise probably meant it in a good way when she remarked that there was a “sadness” in Obama’s voice, as well as “frustration.”
But it all more or less summed up the entire first day of the convention.
It was frustrated and otherwise sapped of any sense of joy that viewers might reasonably expect from what is supposed to be the biggest celebration in Democratic politics.
There was no celebration. There was no happiness. It wasn’t fun to watch.
Well before Obama’s speech, the DNC started with a prayer for George Floyd, the man who died in Minneapolis while being apprehended by police. There was a sad song in his memory. There was a woman who talked about her supposedly perfectly healthy dad who died of COVID-19 despite him being a senior citizen and clearly overweight (a key indicator of coronavirus health complications). “His only pre-existing condition was trusting Donald Trump, and for that, he paid with his life,” she said. There was another sad song and then more montages of people who are out of work right now (thanks to the never-ending campaign by Democrats to keep the economy shut down).
Michelle Obama’s speech ended with her nearly in tears, presumably in earnest. Her voice choked up as she talked about President Trump’s lack of empathy and the urgency of Democratic voters to be sure to vote.
I expected pundits on CNN to rave about how fun this night was, but it wasn’t.
Speaking of CNN, the network’s Van Jones said, “By the time I got to the end, I was crying.”
I’m sure Jones meant that in a good way, too.
