Michelle: Barack is just like you

MICHELLE OBAMA declared “I love this country” on Monday night as she sought to reassure the nation that she and her husband Barack share Americans’ bedrock values and belief in a dream of a better future.

In the first leading address at the Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama described herself as a daughter, a sister, a wife and a mother, no different from many women. She told a boisterous crowd waving signs reading her name that she and her husband feel an obligation to “fight for the world as it should be” to ensure the promise of a better life for their daughters and all children.

Michelle Obama talked about tucking in her daughters Malia and Sasha at night.

“I think about how one day, they’ll have families of their own. And one day, they — and your sons and daughters — will tell their own children about what we did together in this election. They’ll tell them how this time, we listened to our hopes, instead of our fears. How this time, we decided to stop doubting and to start dreaming,” she said.

Michelle Obama’s mission was to humanise her husband and persuade sceptical voters to look past his unusual name and exotic background to envision him as the next president. Barack Obama has repeatedly faced questions about whether he’s a real American.

She also used the address to dismiss questions about her patriotism. Republicans have criticised her comments earlier this year that she was “really proud” of her country for the first time. Her answer at the convention was to express her love of her country.

The Obamas’ two daughters joined their mother on stage after the speech as Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely” blared from in the convention hall.

They spoke to Barack Obama, who appeared by satellite connection from Missouri.

“How about Michelle Obama?” he asked the crowd. “Now you know why I asked her out so many times even though she said no. You want a persistent president.”

Michelle Obama didn’t explicitly address race, but allaying concerns among white voters was part of the strategy for the first black nominee of a major party.

“Barack doesn’t care where you’re from, or what your background is, or what party — if any — you belong to,” she said.

Opponents have criticised him for attending a church that promoted black culture, for not wearing a flag pin on his lapel, for not putting his hand over his heart during the national anthem. They suggested — falsely — that he was secretly Muslim.

Michelle Obama’s job was to show voters they have nothing to fear.

She said little about his policies beyond quickly mentioning his goal of ending the Iraq war, improving the economy and providing healthcare.