Image: AP/J. Scott Applewhite
The Democratic National Convention is getting underway and among the speakers taking to the podium tonight will be our FLOTUS, Michelle Obama. Recently coming in at number seven on Forbes’ list of women who run the world and riding a wave of popularity that USA Today says has two-thirds of Americans holding a favorable view of her, the First Lady is “expected to echo the middle class message” she has delivered in previous speeches, according to MSNBC. It’s a message that is meant to “draw a contrast” to Mitt Romney.
“She implies that Romney, who had a privileged upbringing, can’t relate when she tells middle-class voters that President Barack Obama understands their economic struggles because he has struggled too,” reports the Associated Press. “And she suggests Romney would have other priorities when she says her husband’s empathy will result in a second-term agenda focused squarely on middle-class economic security.”
The article says the speech will also be “sprinkled” with talk about the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act that President Obama made law. The Act eases the process for women seeking to sue employers for equal pay. In addition, her speech will tackle the healthcare law and other policies that reflect the “values that drive my husband to do what he has done and what he is going to do for the next four years,” the First Lady said in an interview on SiriusXM.
ABC News sums up the speech as one that will showcase the Democrats’ “one big idea: ‘How you build an economy meant to last with a strong middle class at its core.’”
This issue of the middle class is a particularly important one at this point with new jobs numbers coming on Friday and research from the National Employment Law Project showing that many of the new jobs being created in this economic recovery are paying less than the middle range of wages — $13.84 to $21.13 — of a chunk of the jobs lost during the recession.
Separately but still on the topic of the Democratic Convention, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is the chairman of the Democratic National Convention, has said outright that this convention “will be the most diverse in history,” which also creates a contrast with the Republican National Convention. During last week’s events, writer Baratunde Thurston, who was covering the GOP convention, started a hashtag, #negrospotting, pointing out the lack of African Americans in attendance.
Also speaking tonight will be Mayor Julian Castro from San Antonio who will be delivering the keynote.
