All eyes on Denver for the Democratic National Convention

A biographical film, called “Southside Girl,” will help introduce Mrs. Obama on Monday night. Her mother, Marian Robinson, will narrate it, and it will feature her childhood, the Obama children and other members of the family. The Obamas often refer to her upbringing as an everyday American story, with hard-working parents.

According to the Obama campaign, in her speech she will give Americans a “personal view” of her husband, Senator Barack Obama, including “the values that have driven him as a father, husband and public servant.”

During the August 25 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom, NPR news analyst and Fox News contributor Juan Williams asserted of Michelle Obama's upcoming speech at the Democratic National Convention: "Well, she's got to be herself, but I do not think she can go for it all out in terms of this kind of militant anger that she sometimes uses, you know. She can be, it seems, rather cynical or dismissive of people," adding, "I don't think she wants to get anywhere near the race issue, anywhere near the militance issue." Williams gave no examples of what he claims to be "this kind of militant anger" that Michelle Obama "sometimes uses."

This is the only night with just one major speaker, her, so obviously the Obama people are placing a lot of importance on this.

Well, it clearly is important. A black president is one mental hurdle for many white people, but a black first family is, to use a handy American colloquialism, a whole-nother hurdle. People watching MO tonight will be picturing her in their minds presiding over state dinners and giving those televised tours of the White House Christmas decorations. This is one of those intangible factors that will be bouncing around white voters' brain pans to who-knows-what effect.

And yet, MO has regularly outpolled Cindy McCain on the likeability front, which is somewhat astonishing when you stop and think about it. Cindy McCain is blond, conventionally pretty and was a cheerleader for God's sakes at the University of Spoiled Children.

So it says something good about America that more people find Michelle appealing, and the people on cable television may well be carrying outdated archetypes in their minds. Wouldn't be the first time.