After Phil linked me to a very interesting article on the relationship of Michelle and Barack Obama, I watched some of Michelle’s speeches/appearances on YouTube. (I didn’t catch any of this at all during the campaign.) I really liked this one: The quote that really resonated with me (bold mine):

And the thing that I want you all to remember: please, please don’t base your vote this time on fear. Base it on possibility. Think, listen. The game of politics is to make you afraid so that you don’t think. And what we need right now isn’t political rhetoric, it isn’t games-playing. We need leadership. We need people with judgment. We need decent people, people with common sense, people with strong family values, people who understand the world. We need people like Barack Obama, who you know, on the day that he is elected to office, will change the way the world sees us. You know that. That is the possibility of Barack Obama.

Before this section of her speech, Michelle mentioned that Barack had lived abroad. I agree that living abroad provides a really important perspective to the office of president, and I’m very conscious of the fact that my experience living abroad has made me more liberal — and just more conscious of my beliefs — than I ever was before, living in the United States.

Of course the American president’s first responsibility is to the people of the United States, but it’s so much more admirable to have a president that also accepts a larger perspective and a greater responsibility to the world, because American policy does affect the whole world.