What a Kennedy Can Do

Michelle Obama was the keynote speaker on opening night of the Democratic National Convention. She gave a riveting speech about her roots, meeting Barack and how they can relate to the common American.

Thousands waved two-foot tall Michelle signs during every pause in the speech. She seemed shine in the moment. Then there was the cute few minutes were her two daughters came on stage to wave to the crowd before a surprise visit from their father via video teleconference.

While the Democratic nominee was addressing the crowd, his youngest daughter, 6-year-old Sasha, grabbed the mic, interrupting her dad to ask him a serious question: Where are you?

“St. Louis.” Barack had already told the crowd as much. It was a moment only Hallmark could write up.

But the show stopper of the evening was Ted Kennedy. The esteemed Democratic senator from Massachusetts has been an icon of the party for decades. He is now in the fight for his life, battling a brain tumor.

We knew a tribute was scheduled for him and that he was in town for the convention, but there were no guarantees he’d be able to speak.

Well, he did.

“My fellow Democrats, my fellow Americans, it is so wonderful to be here,” he told the crowd as he walked on stage to a raucous welcome. “And nothing was going to keep me away from this special gathering.”

And there may be no better way to fire up a crowd of Democrats than by sending a Kennedy battling cancer onto the stage.

Trying to work my way through the floor in between delegates, a stampede almost broke out as hundreds of journalists and others with access to the front of the stage wrestled for space in front of Kennedy.

Despite being nearly crushed, I heard every word from the Senator.

He had the crowd in the palm of his hands, promising to be around in January to see his colleague Sen. Obama sworn into the White House.

Sure, there’s a long race until anyone can predict whether it will be Sen. John McCain or Obama moving into the White House early next year, but for a few moments, nobody inside the packed Pepsi Center had any doubt about the outcome of the presidential election.

Only a Kennedy could pull that off.

—Jacob Harkins, Yellow Scene Magazine editor

More DNC coverage here.