Michelle Obama Touts Husband's Values, Her Working Class Roots in Opening Speech

DENVER, Aug. 25, 2008 — -- On the first night of their National Convention, Democrats in Denver launched a charm offensive in an effort to reintroduce Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., to the country and create a healthy gap in the polls against his Republican rival that has so far proved elusive.

After one of the most bitter primary battles in modern political history, Democrats kicked off the convention with a focus on Obama's life, his support from Democrats' unofficial royal family and its ailing leader, Sen. Ted. Kennedy, D-Mass., and an address from his wife, potentially the first African American first lady.

And Tuesday, the Democrats will hear from the party's other first lady, Sen. Hillary Clinton. The woman who battled Obama for the nomination is expected to make an appeal to her disappointed supporters to back Obama and help end what Democrats fear could be a dangerous split in the ranks.

A Clinton aide has told ABC News' chief Washington correspondent George Stephanopoulos that the New York senator intends to "blow the roof" with her speech tonight.

But on the convention's opening night, it was up to Michelle Obama to try to fend off criticism that her husband is elitist and out of touch. She touted her husband's values as a husband and father, and highlight her working class roots at a time when the campaign is seeking the support of blue collar voters that supported Clinton during the primaries.

"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, and her intelligence reflected in my own daughters," she said.

Michelle spoke openly about her late father who she called "her rock."

"Although he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in his early thirties, he was our provider, our champion, our hero," she said. "As he got sicker, it got harder for him to walk, it 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 worked a little harder."

In a nod to her husband's former primary rival, Michelle Obama thanked Clinton and acknowledged her 18 million supporters.

"I stand here today at the crosscurrents of that history - knowing that my piece of the American Dream is a blessing hard won by those who came before me," she said. "People like Hillary Clinton, who put those 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling, so that our daughters - and sons - can dream a little bigger and aim a little higher."

"People like Joe Biden, who's never forgotten where he came from, and never stopped fighting for folks who work long hours and face long odds and need someone on their side again," she said of Obama's vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del.

As his wife spoke to the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Barack Obama was watching the speech via webcast in Kansas City, Missouri, at the home of voters Jim and Alicia Giradeau in the battleground state.

He appeared afterwards on a huge plasma screen, waving to Michelle and Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, who came out to hug their mother after her speech.

The little girls stole the show afterwards peppering their father with questions, "What city are you in, Daddy?"

"I love you Daddy!" they yelled at him.

Going into the convention, Michelle Obama faced pressure having been the target by some Republicans early on in the Democratic primaries, her patriotism questioned especially over remarks she made after her husband won the Iowa Caucuses.

"For the first time in my adult lifetime I'm really proud of my country," she said speaking to a Democratic rally in Milwaukee, Wisc., Feb 18. A flood of criticism followed the remark, especially from conservative talk radio hosts and bloggers.

But on Monday night, the former corporate lawyer and medical center executive choose her words carefully, with a speech for which she wrote several drafts including a full draft completed as early as two weeks ago, a senior Obama campaign official told ABC News.

"I come here as a wife who loves my husband and believes he will be an extraordinary president," Michelle Obama said.

Michelle Obama opened the door a bit on the Obamas 16-year marriage and described what makes their relationship click.

"In the end, after all that's happened these past 19 months, the Barack Obama I know today is the same man I fell in love with 19 years ago," she said.

"He's the same man who drove me and our new baby daughter home from the hospital ten years ago this summer, inching along at a snail's pace, peering anxiously at us in the rear view mirror, feeling the whole weight of her future in his hands, determined to give her everything he'd struggled so hard for himself, determined to give her what he never had: the affirming embrace of a father's love."

In an emotionally charged high point of the evening, Kennedy took the stage smiling and waving as a huge swell of applause went up in the convention hall.

"Nothing, nothing is going to keep me away from this special gathering tonight," Kennedy said to wild applause and cheers.

Television cameras panned to Kennedy's niece, California First Lady Maria Shriver, who wiped away tears from her face as she listened.

"And this November, the torch will be passed again to a new generation of Americans. So with Barack Obama and for you, our country will be committed to his cause. The work begins anew, the hope rises again, the dream lives on."