Kennedy, Obama rally Dems

DENVER -- Barack Obama "knows the thread that connects our hearts" and will work with others to "fight for the world as it should be," his wife said Monday as the Democratic National Convention closed its first night.

The address by Michelle Obama, 44, wrapped up a night that also featured an emotional tribute to Sen. Edward Kennedy. Her speech focused on two tracks: Barack Obama as a husband and father, and Barack Obama as a political leader.

"I come here today as a wife who loves my husband and believes he will be an extraordinary president," Michelle Obama said. "I come here as a mom whose girls are the heart of my heart and the center of my world. ...Their future – and all our children's future – is my stake in this election."

She said her husband "knows the thread that connects us – our belief in America's promise, our commitment to our children's future – is strong enough to hold us together as one nation even when we disagree."

The Obama family and their supporters are "driven by a simple belief that the world as it is just won't do – that we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be," Michelle Obama said.

"That is the thread that connects our hearts. That is the thread that runs through my journey and Barack's journey and so many other improbable journeys that have brought us here tonight, where the current of history meets this new tide of hope," she said.

The Harvard-educated lawyer praised members of the military and their families, teachers and community service workers as people with "a simple belief … that we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be."

She included Hillary Rodham Clinton in that group, her husband's former rival as someone "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."

After the speech, Barack Obama appeared via video link from Kansas City, where he is campaigning on his way to Denver. "How do you think she did?" he asked his 7-year-old daughter Sasha, who along with 10-year-old daughter Malia had joined her mother on stage. "I thought she did good," Sasha replied.