You may not be aware of this, but Michelle Obama is a strong woman.
She is a myriad of other things as well of course, but her strength and forthrightness, and its attendant positive benefits (or negative consequences, depending on your perspective) as it relates to the campaign is likely the trait that's been most debated.
In fact, no less an authority than David Axelrod has acknowledged the latter, saying, "Occasionally it gives campaign people heartburn."
However I am a firm believer in the former, and it's clear the campaign shares that view as well. In fact, I have commented before with great admiration on how Michelle came to be known both inside and outside the campaign as "The Closer."
Well, that Michelle was on full display last night during Countdown's segment featuring more exclusive clips from the Obama's interview with Meredith Vieira.
And Meredith Vieria evidently forgot who she was dealing with.
T'was indeed a thing of beauty... come hither with me after the jump, won't you?
I've embedded the Countdown clip below so you can enjoy the deliciousness for yourself.
It all starts when Meredith starts to question Barack on "electability," and his alleged inability to win the "big states."
Barack begins to lay out a reasoned, logical response explaining why this is actually a mythical notion, and naming the large and swing states that he has won- there are plenty.
But then, at the 4:42 mark, Meredith interrupts him to say:
"But it's not a "notion," it's what political folks are saying. And it's clear!"
Uh oh. The minute the words "And it's clear" come out of Meredith's mouth, you can see that Michelle is going to have something interesting to say. The smile she gets on her face seems to say, "Oh really, Meredith? Is that a fact?" But she lets Barack address it first, which he does quite ably, starting off by saying, "Meredith, that's simply not true."
At the 6:08 mark, however, Michelle decides it's time to explain to Meredith the REAL facts as she (and we) know them to be.
That (paraphrasing):
it's a fact that Barack has changed the face of campaign fundraising;
it's a fact that people see in Barack something fundamentally different;
it's a fact that young voters are paying attention in a way they never have before;
You have to see it for yourself.
The way she uses the phrase "It's a fact," almost as an anaphora, the way Barack does so effectively in his speeches, is pretty awesome to behold.
I'm pretty sure Meredith got the message. I hope America did too.
UPDATE: I'm not sure what's going on with the embedding. Half the time I open the diary and the video appears fine; half the time just the HTML shows up, so here's the link as well just in case:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
UPDATE #2: Found a YouTube version. Let's see if that embed works better!
UPDATE #3: You know, I swore if I ever found myself in this position, I wouldn't publish one of those sterotypical breathlessly giddy updates saying, "Wow! First time on the Rec list! Thanks so much guys!" But in the immortal words of Sally Fields, "it is a fact" that right now, you like me! You really like me! :o)
In all seriousness: THANK YOU. I'M HONORED. (And breathlessly giddy...)