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Michelle Obama Tells Of Love

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The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 26, 2008

DENVER - Michelle Obama told Democrats on the opening night of their convention that her husband and their presumed nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, emerged from humble beginnings with an understanding of the need to serve and inspire.

She spoke of visiting the Chicago neighborhoods where Obama worked as a community organizer and how he told people not to settle for "the world as it is." His words "stayed with me ever since," she said.

"He urged us to believe in ourselves - to find strength within ourselves to strive for the world as it should be," she said. "And isn't that the great American story?"

In the first major address at the Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama said she and Barack Obama feel an obligation to "fight for the world as it should be" to ensure a better future for their daughters and all children.

In keeping with the campaign's effort to play up party unity at the Denver convention, Michelle Obama also paid tribute to her husband's former rival for the Democratic nomination, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Clinton's success in the primaries means that her daughters "can dream a little bigger and aim a little higher," Michelle Obama said.

Her 16-minute speech was peppered with anecdotes about the couple and their two daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, and offered a humanizing portrait of the candidate, who has endured criticism from Republicans, and even some Democrats, for appearing aloof and elitist.

"I come here as a wife who loves my husband and believes he will be an extraordinary president," she said in her first address to a broad audience of voters.

The night was a family affair. Marian Robinson, Michelle's mother, narrated a video about the next potential first family, and Michelle was introduced by her brother, Craig, head basketball coach at Oregon State University in Corvallis.

Obama, 47, an Illinois senator, watched the proceedings at the home of a family in the Kansas City area. He told reporters today that his primary goal for the convention is to "make the choice between myself and John McCain as clear as possible," referring to the presumed Republican nominee.

"I want people to come away saying, 'whether I'm voting for the guy or against the guy, I know what he stands for,'" Obama said.

Michelle Obama's speech capped a night that featured an unexpected speech by Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy, the unofficial patriarch of the Democratic Party who is suffering from brain cancer.

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