US First Lady urges voters to give Obama another chance

North Carolina, Sept 5:

First Lady

yesterday made a compelling case for her husband's re-election by stressing that voters "can trust Barack to do what he says he's going to do, even when it's hard - especially when it's hard."

Addressing the Democratic party's national convention in Charlotte, she urged the delegates that they "must work like never before" and "stand together for the man we can trust to keep moving this great country forward...our president, Barack Obama."

Describing her husband as "a kindred spirit", Michelle noted, "Barack and I were both raised by families who didn't have much in the way of money or material possessions but who had given us something far more valuable - their unconditional love, their unflinching sacrifice and the chance to go places they had never imagined for themselves."

She pointed out that her husband had initially refused high paying jobs and instead worked "in struggling neighbourhoods where a steel plant had shut down, fighting to rebuild those communities and get folks back to work...because for Barack, success isn't about how much money you make, it's about the difference you make in people's lives."

Michelle said that "...when it comes to rebuilding our economy, Barack is thinking about folks like my dad and like his grandmother. He's thinking about the pride that comes from a hard day's work. That's why he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to help women get equal pay for equal work. That's why he cut taxes for working families and small businesses and fought to get the auto industry back on its feet."

She quoted the President as saying that they were "playing a long game...and that change is hard, and change is slow, and it never happens all at once. But eventually we get there, we always do."

Citing some of the hardships the couple had faced, Michelle recounted how Barack Obama once used to pick her up for their dates in a "rusted" car. "I could actually see the pavement going by through 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."

Michelle said that "Barack knows the American Dream because he's lived it...and he wants everyone in this country to have that same opportunity, no matter who we are, or where we're from, or what we look like, or who we love. And he believes that when you've worked hard, and done well, and walked through that doorway of opportunity...you do not slam it shut behind you...you reach back, and you give other folks the same chances that helped you succeed."

"Today, after so many struggles and triumphs and moments that have tested my husband in ways I never could have imagined, I have seen firsthand that being president doesn't change who you are - it reveals who you are," she said.

The First Lady's speech, laced with personal anecdotes, was made at a time when the race for the White House is too close to call. However, the undecided voters can still tilt the scales in favour of the incumbent who is being challenged by the Republican Party's presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

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