My Sister and Brother

left Reno early this morning. They had a great time going to different events during Hot August Nights week, which is only about halfway over with. I plan to take in more events in the next couple of days, including some free concerts.

I took the bus over to the Grand Sierra Resort, and then I walked home from there. I then realized I had forgotten Michelle Obama was going to be in town today. When I arrived at home, I found my paper of the announcement, but thank God, I wasn't too late to attend.

I walked down to the Pioneer Center and went to a small room where she was to give her remarks. There were reportedly "more than" 300 supporters there, but it didn't look as if there were that many people. A couple of hundred, perhaps, but still a good turnout considering it was on a workday.

It was probably 20 minutes or so before she arrived. Since I forgot my camcorder, I didn't tape her remarks. Michelle Obama talked about her background and how she met the Audacity of Hype and then married him and all (their two daughters were there, but they didn't want to be onstage). She made her point that there needed to be change in Washington because the status quo simply wasn't working. She hit on similar themes her husband hit on, including restoring America's values, including the American Dream, and she said in effect she was able to achieve her dreams. She went to Chicago public schools and she, like her older brother, wound up going to Princeton. When she graduated there, she went to Harvard Law School*. Following that, she ran into Barack, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I do have to say this much about Michelle, who is VERY tall, by the way, almost six-feet tall in her shoes (she's probably around 5'9" or 5'10"*, but she is very tall and had to stoop down a bit in order to get her picture taken with many supporters), and that is SHE, not her husband, is charismatic, articulate, and very intelligent (not that he is stupid, but he sure appears out of his depth). She was dynamic, forceful, animated, and knew exactly what point she wanted to get across to the crowd. I was VERY impressed with her. If she were running for president and not her husband, I'd have no problem supporting her. She'd give Hillary Clinton a run for her money.

As I always do, I stayed around after she gave her remarks, and shook her hand and complimented her on her speech and said I felt she was a definite asset to her husband. I meant it.

Oprah has her work cut out for her, that's all I'll say.

Apparently she and her daughters cruised down Virginia Street as part of Hot August Nights. I missed that!

I took some pictures, and I will try to post some on the blog perhaps tomorrow. She was so animated, it was hard to get clear pictures, but I did have some.

*--According to Wikipedia, Michelle is 5'11". She's every bit that.

**--If I have any criticism of her remarks, it's that she should be careful talking about the Ivy League colleges as if they are the "best." They aren't really the "best" academically; instead, what they ARE superior at is providing connections for their graduates to the wealthy and powerful that the rest of us poor slobs don't have. The reason she needs to be careful about this is that few people outside of the Northeast actually give a shit about the Ivies or really care about what college one goes to. The vast majority of people who do go to and graduate from college, a minority of Americans, by the way, go to state universities and community colleges. One should not leave himself or herself open to charges of elitism, and Michelle needs to watch it. Hillary Clinton also went to elite postsecondary schools, but she never makes a big deal about it.