I had the chance this morning to watch Michelle Obama's speech at the Convention last night.  She really hit one out of the park by showing herself as very much part of the American community.  She took on the Republican mythology that has been ginned up on the garbage about her not being proud of America and punched holes right through it.

But as I watched the replay of her speech, I kept coming back to a remarkable comment I heard from a woman who phoned in to C-Span after the close of Day 1 of the Convention.  The woman, who apparently was a McCain supporter, stated that the speech showed just how irresponsible the Obamas were.  The irresponsibility, in her view, was obvious because the Obamas chose community service over positions in high-powered law firms.  To paraphase the woman, the Obamas were clearly not taking care of their affairs by choosing salaries that would take care of their debts (how that follows logically I have no idea).  So, the argument goes, if they can't manage their debts, how can Barack Obama possibly manage the country in a responsible manner?

To me, this comment is the essence of mainstream Republican claptrap today: that conscious and meaningful community building is nothing more than personal irresponsibility.  And in one form or another this is a task that Democrats must continue to address.  The last several years have offered myriad examples of how the Republican message of "pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps" is a bankrupt philosophy that throws the people to the wolves. 

Deregulation, laissez-faire economics, "freedom" (mainstream Republican code for "screw your neighbor before he screws you") have created the mess we're in.  Democrats really need, in response to this, to listen carefully to what Michelle Obama said last night and what I hope Barack Obama will say on Thursday.  Her words last night really reminded me why I'm a Democrat: that civic responsibility is really a virtue and not a vice. 

I've worried for a long time that this Democratic principle is disappearing from the conversation.  Michelle Obama's speech took one step toward convincing me that it's not.  I hope we continue to hear it over the next three days.