Arms Are The New Cleavage

Has there ever been a more eloquent First Lady? Intelligent and heart-felt, Michelle Obama's 2012 DNC opening night speech was one for the ages.

Floats Like a Butterfly, Stings Like a Bee

Without mentioning her husband's opponent by name, the much beloved first lady defined presidential hopeful Mitt Romney as a man who was born on third base, but thinks he's hit a triple.

Favorite Michelle Obama Convention Quotes

• "...these issues aren’t political—they’re personal. Because Barack knows what it means when a family struggles."

• "If you are fortunate enough to get an education and be successful, you don't slam the door on the others behind you."

• "How hard you work matters more than how much you make; helping others means more than just getting ahead yourself."

• "I have seen firsthand that being President doesn’t change who you are. No, it reveals who you are."

• "...success isn’t about how much money you make, it’s about the differences you make in people’s lives."

Favorite Convention Tweet

On Michelle Obama's chiseled physique:

Arms are the new cleavage
— Kim Bondy

Favorite Convention Picture

The Obamas watching the First Lady's DNC Convention Speech

This is American Music

The White House performances hosted on the Obama's watch have been nothing short of Milky-Way stellar. Last time, the First Couple invited Sir Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder to the East Room. This time, they showcased a fantasy blues team of substance and breadth that ranged from Susan Tedeschi to Trombone Shorty.

The celebration of a REAL, home-grown musical idiom like the Blues, with all its tribulations and slow-burning soul, gives me goose-bumps. To know I participate in an American experiment with all its lofty ideals and all its obvious warts, moves me.

Blues legend Buddy Guy paints the arc of our nation's recent journey:

"I was born on a farm in Louisiana. My family were sharecroppers, and I picked cotton by hand, not by machine. And all of a sudden you go to sleep, wake up, and you're invited to play at the White House. This is something so special, you know, I just close my eyes and say, thank you God."
~Buddy Guy at 0:37 below..

Jimi Hendrix said the Blues aren't hard to play, just hard to feel.

A guy will promise you the world and give you nothin', and that's the Blues.
~Otis Rush, Blues guitarist and singer

I don't know that there's a satisfactory definition of the Blues. But there's no other musical genre that so poignantly encapsulates hope and despair. The Blues is the narrative of the non-native American, but its hard luck themes and searing licks are universally resonant.

The Blues is quintessential American music.