Michelle Obama has delivered a powerful speech to open her husband’s campaign for a second term in the November US Presidential elections.
The First Lady of the United States addressed a crowd of 6000 delegates in what was billed as a major highlight of the three-day Democratic National Convention.
Michelle Obama: In love with a President
She captivated the enthusiastic crowd with a rousing mixture of inspiring anecdotes and policy talk.
Mrs Obama highlighted the challenges Barack and the family had faced in the four years of his presidency and the change he had driven, but her main message was the “the president is just like you”.
“Today, after so many years of struggles and triumphs and moments that have tested my husband in ways I never could have imagine, I have seen firsthand that being president doesn’t change who you are — it reveals who you are,” she said.
“You see, even though back then Barack was a senator and a presidential candidate, to me, he was still the guy who’d picked me up for our dates in a car that was so rusted out, I could actually see the pavement going by in a hole in the passenger side door.
“He was the guy whose proudest possession was a coffee table he’d found in a dumpster, and whose only pair of decent shoes was half a size too small.”
The first lady also told voters that she and her husband shared the same key values — hard work, perseverance, and optimism.
Michelle was elegant in a rose-pink and grey silk dress custom-designed by New York designer Tracy Reese, matched with pink pumps and minimal jewellery.
The opening night speech had been highly anticipated, with the president saying today his wife’s speech would cement her place as the “star of the Obama family”.
“I know that whatever I say here today, it’s going to be at best a distant second to the speech you will hear tonight from Michelle,” he said.
The President was not one of the 6000 onlookers captivated by Michelle’s powerful speech at the convention centre in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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“I’m going to be at home, and I’m going to be watching it with our girls,” Obama said prior to his wife’s speech.
“And I am going to try and not let them see their daddy cry.”
There were also tears in the audience, which roared with cheers and applause throughout the First Lady’s speech.
People watching from home were also enchanted by Michelle’s speech — in the hour after the address, Twitter users posted 28,000 tweets on the subject every minute.
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