That. Was. Incredible.

If you’ve been fol­low­ing the DNC from home, then you just wit­nessed, along with us, one of the great­est speech­es ever deliv­ered at a Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion… Michelle Oba­ma’s cul­mi­nat­ing prime­time address, in which she elo­quent­ly laid out the case for Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma’s reelec­tion. To say that the speech was a home run would be putting it mild­ly. It was absolute­ly fantastic.

By the time Michelle Oba­ma walked out onto the stage  at 10:38 PM, expec­ta­tions were already high — and del­e­gates were already plen­ty excit­ed — but the First Lady some­how man­aged to pro­pel the ener­gy in the are­na to a whole new level.

I’m not sure how to describe the feel­ing. A mix­ture of delight, hap­pi­ness, joy, grat­i­tude, excite­ment. A euphor­ic feeling.

In that moment, when Michelle Oba­ma walked to the podi­um, it felt like there was an elec­tric cur­rent in the air. Thou­sands of We Love Michelle ral­ly signs in the air. Every­body on their feet. Cam­eras flash­ing. Yelling, whistling, cheer­ing and clap­ping so pro­longed that the First Lady had to wait for the excite­ment to sub­side a bit so she could begin her remarks… which I’ll dis­cuss in a moment.

Democ­rats wel­come Michelle Oba­ma to Time Warn­er Cable Are­na just after 10:35 PM on Tues­day, Sep­tem­ber 4th. (Pho­to: Andrew Villeneuve/NPI)

Repub­li­cans have been try­ing to sug­gest for some time that Democ­rats just aren’t enthu­si­as­tic about reelect­ing Barack Oba­ma. I think tonight, Democ­rats offered con­vinc­ing proof that the Repub­li­cans are com­plete­ly wrong, The enthu­si­asm here in Char­lotte is con­ta­gious, and there’s a lot of it. Democ­rats tru­ly are fired up and ready to go to ensure that Pres­i­dent Oba­ma gets a sec­ond term in 2012. If Democ­rats lose this Novem­ber, it won’t be for lack of trying.

In her speech, Michelle Oba­ma described her own jour­ney as a moth­er from being the spouse of a pres­i­den­tial can­di­date to the spouse of the leader of the free world.

“Serv­ing as your First Lady is an hon­or and a priv­i­lege,” she told del­e­gates and guests. “But back when we first came togeth­er four years ago, I still had some con­cerns about this jour­ney we’d begun.”

“While I believed deeply in my husband’s vision for this coun­try, and I was cer­tain he would make an extra­or­di­nary Pres­i­dent, like any moth­er, I was wor­ried about what it would mean for our girls if he got that chance. How will we keep them ground­ed under the glare of the nation­al spot­light? How would they feel being uproot­ed from their school, their friends, and the only home they’d ever known?”

“See, our life before mov­ing to Wash­ing­ton was filled with sim­ple joys — Sat­ur­days at soc­cer games, Sun­days at Grandma’s house, and a date night for Barack and me was either din­ner or a movie, because as an exhaust­ed mom, I couldn’t stay awake for both,” she added, to laugh­ter from the hall.

“And the truth is, I loved the life we had built for our girls, and I deeply loved the man I had built that life with — and I didn’t want that to change if he became Pres­i­dent… I loved Barack just the way he was.”

“And stand­ing before you four years ago, I knew that I didn’t want any of that to change if Barack became President.”

Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma and his daugh­ters, Malia, left, and Sasha, watch on tele­vi­sion as First Lady Michelle Oba­ma takes the stage to deliv­er her speech at the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion, in the Treaty Room of the White House. (Pho­to: Pete Souza/The White House)

“Well, today, after so many strug­gles and tri­umphs and moments that have test­ed my hus­band in ways I nev­er could have imag­ined, I have seen first­hand that being Pres­i­dent doesn’t change who you are — no, it reveals who you are.”

Del­e­gates jumped to their feet, giv­ing the First Lady anoth­er stand­ing ovation.

“You see, I’ve got­ten to see up close and per­son­al what being Pres­i­dent real­ly looks like,” Oba­ma con­tin­ued. “And I’ve seen how the issues that come across a President’s desk are always the hard ones — the prob­lems where no amount of data or num­bers will get you to the right answer; the judg­ment calls where the stakes are so high, and there is no mar­gin for error. And as Pres­i­dent, you’re going to get all kinds of advice from all kinds of peo­ple.  But at the end of the day, when it comes time to make that deci­sion, as Pres­i­dent, all you have to guide you are your val­ues and your vision, and the life expe­ri­ences that make you who you are.”

First Lady Michelle Oba­ma address­es the 2012 Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion on Tues­day, Sep­tem­ber 4th. (Pho­to: Andrew Villeneuve/NPI)

Lat­er, she reflect­ed, “So when peo­ple ask me whether being in the White House has changed my hus­band, I can hon­est­ly say that when it comes to his char­ac­ter, and his con­vic­tions, and his heart, Barack Oba­ma is still the same man I fell in love with all those years ago. He’s the same man who start­ed his career by turn­ing down high-pay­ing jobs and instead work­ing in strug­gling neigh­bor­hoods where a steel plant had shut down, fight­ing to rebuild those com­mu­ni­ties and get folks back to work — because for Barack, suc­cess isn’t about how much mon­ey you make, it’s about the dif­fer­ence you make in people’s lives.”

After ask­ing the con­ven­tion to stand with her in reelect­ing Pres­i­dent Oba­ma, she exit­ed to thun­der­ous applause and anoth­er sus­tained ovation.

Wash­ing­ton, New Hamp­shire, and Min­neso­ta del­e­gates cheer for Michelle Oba­ma (Pho­to: Andrew Villeneuve/NPI)

The unan­i­mous opin­ion among every­one I’ve talked to so far here in Char­lotte is that the speech was out­stand­ing. Of course, we’re biased.

But then, so is our opposition.

It’ll be inter­est­ing to see if any media orga­ni­za­tions come out with polling show­ing what self-pro­fessed inde­pen­dents and unde­cid­ed vot­ers thought of the speech. I bet if there are any such sur­veys done, a major­i­ty — or more — will give the First Lady a good grade. That was sim­ply a ter­rif­ic speech.

We’re all def­i­nite­ly look­ing for­ward to tomor­row after this. Eliz­a­beth War­ren and Bill Clin­ton have a tough act to fol­low. But they are excel­lent speak­ers in their own right, and I sus­pect they’ll be able to build on the excite­ment that Michelle Oba­ma and all the speak­ers who came before her built this evening.

Char­lotte is rockin’ tonight!