Michelle Obama, the feisty, straight-talking wife of the Democratic presidential candidate, launched a spirited effort Monday to woo wary voters by casting Barack as a regular guy, an American success story and not the exotic figure unfit to be president that is portrayed by his adversaries.
“Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values – that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you're going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them, and even if you don't agree with them,” Ms. Obama said in excerpts from the text of her speech, released by her husband's campaign. Ms. Obama will be the first African-American first lady in U.S. history if her husband's meteoric political rise reaches the White House.
Thousands of Democrats converged on Denver to confirm Senator Barack Obama, 47, as the first black presidential nominee from a major party and to launch a concerted effort to convince voters that the young, charismatic, but relatively inexperienced senator can deliver on his promises of hope and change.
Ms. Obama's speech was intended to launch a major Democratic effort to assure Americans that despite his unusual name, his Muslim father from Kenya, his unusual upbringing, both abroad in Indonesia and with his white grandparents in Hawaii, that Barack Obama is a genuine American who can lead the nation.
“I come here as a wife who loves my husband and believes he will be an extraordinary president,” Ms. Obama, 44, said. “I come here as a daughter, raised on the South Side of Chicago by a father who was a blue-collar city worker, and a mother who stayed at home with my brother and me.”
“You know, what struck me when I first met Barack was that even though he had this funny name, even though he'd grown up all the way across the continent in Hawaii, his family was so much like mine. He was raised by grandparents who were working class folks just like my parents and by a single mother who struggled to pay the bills, just like we did,” she said.
She spoke movingly about the first time she heard Mr. Obama address a community gathering as part of his volunteer work in Chicago.
"Barack stood up that day, and he spoke words that have stayed with me ever since. He talked about 'the world as it is' and 'the world as it should be,'" she said, adding that too often people were forced to settle for the first.
"I stand here today at the cross-currents of that history knowing that my piece of the American Dream is a blessing hard won by those who came before me.
"All of us driven by a simple belief that the world as it is just won't do, that we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be."
The presumptive first lady also paid tribute to her husband's defeated rival, Senator Hillary Clinton, borrowing from the New York senator's concession speech saying she had put "18 million cracks in the glass ceiling, so that our daughters — and sons — can dream a little bigger and aim a little higher."
After her speech, Ms. Obama brought the couple's two young daughters on stage and then Mr. Obama appeared — courtesy of a video link from Kansas City. Then, with 20,000 watching, the Obama children charmed the audience with endearing pleasantries and blew kisses to their father, closing out the first evening of the convention.
Michelle Obama's message was backed up by the night's most dramatic speaker, ailing Senator Edward Kennedy, who made a surprise appearance at the Democratic National Convention, looking hale and urging delegates to come together to support Mr. Obama in his campaign for the U.S. presidency.
