Social media and blogging has an amazing reach, and I'm happy that Michelle Obama has decided to embrace the platform. Michelle posted today about her husband and the election on BlogHer.com. It is easy to tune out news that seems like old news when it is just election information rehashed and overly dissected, but as Michelle Obama engages the online community I listened.

While it is commendable that Michelle is working to engage, listen, and become a voice in the BlogHer community, I was disappointed that her post didn't "get" blogging.

Many of the phrases she used I have heard over and over on the news and on Obama ads. I was excited to read about Michelle's personal experiences, and get an insider's view on the election, but surprise!--it fell a little short of the candor I think people desire from a blog. She wrote for her audience, but almost played to exactly what they would want to her. Nothing is wrong with that, but I wish she could have stayed away from the cookie cutter language.

An example of what I wish her post could have been was actually in the comments:

"Michelle -
Thank you from me, and my daughter. I'm stealing a chance to tell you something that my daughter said. She is almost 10, and this is the first presidential election she has followed - obviously. She was an Obama supporter long before I was, while I was still on the fence. But we had great talks she and I about everyone running and what they were saying and the world we wanted to live in. It was historic, really, but very personal, to realize that my daughter's first election was, to her, between a black man and a woman. I've been in awe of that. When I told her how important that was to me, she just laughed and said, "Jeesh mom, they're just people!"

I cried. "MOM!" I'm sorry, it's a big deal. But when I asked her why she was such a strong Obama supporter, she said it was because he made her feel good. In discussion, it turned out that she meant that when she hears him speak, she feels hopeful, like she wants to do better, she feels inspired. I told her that I wasn't sure that was enough of a reason to vote for someone. She reminded me that I always tell her that if you BELIEVE you can do something, than you can, and that when you make people feel good, they are more willing to help you. She informed that that's what he does. Her contention was that inspiring us all to believe we can make a better world, and making us ALL part of the process was, in fact, good enough.

I love it when my baby girl makes things that simple, and that right.

But what really won her over, apparently, were you and your daughters. "They look like they could be our friends, ya know?" Um hm. I do know. Welcome in to our lives Michelle. Thank you for just being one of us. Amazing it took a 10 year old to make it clear how much that means, but it does.....

Thank you."

This comment was vastly more powerful than Michelle's actual post. Until politics aren't politics as usual, I'm not sure if blogs and social media are a great fit as a political podium or megaphone, but maybe politics could use a dose of the honesty cultivated in blogs.