Two speeches that defined a campaign: Donald Trump’s conspiratorial ranting and Michelle Obama’s inspiring call for decency

Everyone was anxiously waiting on Thursday morning to see how Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump would react to the cascade of new accusations of sexual abuse, misconduct and inappropriate commentary that came down on Wednesday night. His lawyer had threatened The New York Times with a lawsuit and the word on the street was that the campaign had decided to go nuclear.

But before Trump could deliver his scheduled speech to a West Palm Beach crowd, first lady Michelle Obama delivered one of her own in New Hampshire that put the whole issue into perspective. Surprising everyone, she decided to not give her usual stump speech and instead addressed Trump’s treatment of women head-on, delivering the most emotionally raw remarks of her public career. With a voice that uncharacteristically shook at times, she patiently explained to a reeling nation how Trump’s language and behavior sounds to millions of women and proclaimed this truth:

"This is not normal. This is not politics as usual. This is disgraceful. It is intolerable. And it doesn’t matter what party you belong to — Democrat, Republican, independent — no woman deserves to be treated this way. None of us deserves this kind of abuse."...
http://www.salon.com/2016/10/14/two-speeches-that-defined-a-campaign-donald-trumps-conspiratorial-ranting-and-michelle-obamas-inspiring-call-for-decency/