Let's be clear: on today's With All Due Respect, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann were very complimentary about Kelley Paul's performance today in introducing her husband Rand at his presidential announcement speech. They described her as a big asset and anticipate seeing a lot more of her on the campaign trail.
That said, the duo said something that boggled my mind, claiming that as good as she was, Kelley was "not at Michelle Obama's level." Back in April, 2008, a full year later in that campaign cycle, this NewsBuster wrote about Michelle's shockingly angry performance on the stump [view the item and above all the video here], and asked if the MSM would report it. Of course they didn't. As I recall, Michelle "disappeared" from big public appearances for some time after that fiasco. IMHO Kelley is light years ahead of Michelle at this stage.
Can anyone explain what Halperin and Heilemann could possibly have had in mind?
[After rolling clip of Kelley Paul's remarks]
JOHN HEILEMANN: Yeah, I think, you know, don't be too tough on her. I'd say that, with that level of poise, if that was a convention speech, I'd say it wasn't very poised. For a woman making her debut on the national stage, first time she's been watched, probably, by more than 50, 60 or 200 people, she was very poised I thought, given that it was her debut.
MARK HALPERIN: 100%, 100%. All I meant was that she's not at Michelle Obama level yet. But she was very strong today, and the Paul people were over the moon about it.
HEILEMANN: It would be pretty amazing if she were at Michelle Obama level already.
