DENVER – Michelle Obama claimed a double-victory Monday night, painting an endearing portrait of her husband and revealing a softer side of herself, especially as a wife and mother.
“And 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. My mother's love has always been a sustaining force for our family, and one of my greatest joys is seeing her integrity, her compassion, her intelligence reflected in my daughters,” she said.
“My dad was our rock. And although he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in his early 30s, he was our provider. He was our champion, our hero. But as he got sicker, it got harder for him to walk, took him longer to get dressed in the morning. But if he was in pain, he never let on. He never stopped smiling and laughing, even while struggling to button his shirt, even while using two canes to get himself across the room to give my mom a kiss. He just woke up a little earlier and he worked a little harder.”
Having made the case for family values without ever mentioning the term, Michelle Obama linked her upbringing with that of her husband’s.
“And you know, what struck me when I first met Barack was that even though he had this funny name, and even though he had 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. And like my family, they scrimped and saved so that he could have opportunities that they never had for themselves.”
“In my own life, in my own life, in my own small way, I have tried to give back to this country that has given me so much.”
Michelle Obama explained her role in rearing their two children, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7.
“I come here as a mom -- as a mom whose girls are the heart of my heart and the center of my world. They're the first things I think about when I wake up in the morning and the last thing I think about before I go to bed at night. Their future -- and all our children's future -- is my stake in this election.”
Michelle Obama has been criticized by conservatives for a comment she made about howthis campaign was the first time she had been proud of the United States. Campaign officials later stated that she meant to say that she has never been as proud as she is now.
To answer that criticism, the First Lady-in-waiting made repeated references to her love for the United States.
‘In my own life, in my own life, in my own small way, I have tried to give back to this country that has given me so much. See, that's why I left a job at a big law firm for a career in public service, working to empower young people to volunteer in their communities, because I believe that each of us -- no matter what our age or background or our walk of life -- each of us has something to contribute to the life of this nation.”
She continued, “And it's a belief Barack shares, a belief at the heart of his life's work. See, it's what he did all those years ago in Chicago, setting up job training to get people back to work and after-school programs to keep kids safe; working block by block to help people lift up their families. It's what he did in the Illinois Senate, moving people from welfare to jobs, passing tax cuts for hardworking families, and making sure women get equal pay for equal work. It's what he's done in the United States Senate, fighting to ensure the men and women who serve this country are welcomed home not just with medals and parades, but with good jobs and benefits and health care, including mental health care.”
Michelle’s brother Craig, head basketball coach at Oregon State University, provided a brother’s perspective.
“Sometimes, when I look at the -- the woman you're about to hear from, it's funny to think that this is the same person who used to wake me up early -- and I mean early -- on Christmas morning,” he recalled. “This is the person who would play the piano to calm me down before my big games in high school. This is the person who, even though we were allowed only one hour of television a night, somehow managed to memorize every single episode of "’The Brady Bunch.’"
After pausing for laughter, he continued: “But when I really think back, I can also see how the person she is today was formed in the experiences we shared growing up: working hard, studying hard, having parents who wanted more for us than what they had, and always being reminded that in this country of all countries those things were possible.”
Is more than possible that if Barack Obama is elected president, she will bring a sense of style to the Whites House. Unlike Nancy Reagan, who wore so much jewelry it could blind onlookers, or the plainness of Pat Nixon and Laura Bush, she is an elegant dresser. On Monday night, for example, she wore an ocean-blue dress by Chicago designer Maria Pinto and a pair of diamond earrings.
The Obama kids may have upstaged both parents, asking their father via satellite where he was and saying, “I love you, Daddy.”
By the time Michelle Obama had finished defining her family, it was clear that the delegates loved her, too.