Melania Trump: If you have to copy, copy well
The aspiring first lady's debut at the Republican convention in Cleveland was not the best. Her speech seemed (quite) copied by Michelle Obama's. But dear Mel, at least some things have to be done well. And in the meantime we were witnessing another spectacle outside
Of the whole affair of Melania Trump's speech delivered yesterday at the Cleveland Republican Convention and according to many "copied" from the similar one in 2008 by Michelle Obama, the most serious thing is not those two sentences taken step by step, it is evident. The most serious and worrying thing is that Melania copied badly. Like when she was in high school, copying from the best can be a legitimate and dignified activity: after all they are the best, aren't they? The problem is that even copying must be able.
And it is (also) there that Melania failed. In her speech - the first as an official First Lady candidate - Melania talked a lot about her husband Donald trying to convince us that he would be the right man for the White House, underlining how good a man he is, open to dialogue, attentive to diversity, one " that never abandons you ».
Apart from the irony of this sentence said by her third wife, what was missing in her speech were the examples, especially of their life together, which is what really interests everyone. In contravention of one of the fundamental rules of speechwriting or the art of writing speeches according to which an example is worth a thousand words, Melania has not even provided us with an anecdote, a joke, a joke, something intimate, in short.
Nothing at all. More than photogenic, more than good intentions and good deeds and good politics, what really made Michelle and Barack Obama's world fall in love with were the intimate details of their story. We know everything about them: how she, three years older, was her mentor in the law firm where he was practicing and how she refused to go out with him several times. We know that on the first date - which in the meantime has even become a film - they went to the cinema and to eat an ice cream and they kissed with chocolate flavor. We know that when he decided to run, the only thing she asked him was to stop smoking.
We know that he actually smokes secretly, that he snores and that he leaves his socks around the house. We know a lot about Barack and Michelle husband and wife. Which we don't know about Melania and Donald. Or we know too little about it and in any case we don't know it within a romantic comedy narrative. If Melania had copied well, instead of single cold phrases here and there, she would have understood that the most important thing to repeat was the story. Maybe seasoned with a little warmth and gestures.
Look at the two nearby videos: Michelle's speech in 2008 and Melania's last night, the first animated and gesticulating, the second still and icy. For the garden, for gymnastics, for dancing with Ellen Degeneres, for karaoke in the car with James Corden (the episode with Michelle will air on Wednesday) there is always time and these are all things that Melania can learn. Before her, however, she must tell us about her and Donald and her life in the Trump Tower, including dirty socks.
