The Universality Of Michelle

A reader writes:

The letter you ran from that father identifies a distinct universal feeling that Michelle's speech captured.  But, beyond speaking to mothers and fathers of various ages, the line about driving home from the hospital also spoke to another audience -- sons and daughters of various ages who, like Obama, felt an obligation to "to give [to their children] everything he'd struggled so hard for himself, determined to give [their children] what he never had: the affirming embrace of a father's love."  This is the flip side of the Father's Day speech Obama gave earlier this year.

Obama clicked with people, like myself, who grew up for two-thirds of my life without my father around -- and still deals, even now, with a man who has remained completely selfish and distant his entire life. Obama is an inspiration to the many in the post-Boomer generation -- regardless of color -- who grew up without a responsible male role model.

Obama can say to them: "Yes, you are able to overcome these circumstances and succeed -- not merely professionally -- but personally as well. You can create the better family life that was denied you. Are you able to overcome the emotional wounds inflicted upon you by a father's absence (or recklessness)? Yes, you can."

I'm a Republican. But the Obamas said and showed a better statement of family values Monday than anything the GOP has tried to force down America's collective throat for the last two decades.