FIRST Lady Michelle Obama acknowledged that the change her husband Barack Obama championed in his White House campaign four years ago has proven difficult but urged voters to give him four more years to fix the US economy.
"We are playing a long game here, and that change is hard, and change is slow, and it never happens all at once," she told the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. "But eventually we get there. We always do."
The popular first lady was the highest-profile advocate for her husband in the first of three days of speeches that will conclude with Mr Obama's address tonight to accept the Democratic nomination to face Mitt Romney on November 6.
In a race that is too close to call nine weeks before Americans vote, Mr Obama is vulnerable to the challenge from Republican nominee Mr Romney due to a sluggish economy and 8.3% unemployment.
The President is trying to use his convention to recapture the magic that carried him to victory in 2008 but admitted he would give himself a grade of "incomplete" for his first term.
There were what appeared to be subtle digs from Mrs Obama at her husband's Republican rival.
"For Barack, success isn't about how much money you make, it's about the difference you make in people's lives," she said, perhaps a reference to multimillionaire Mr Romney.
A host of speakers at the gathering in Charlotte attacked Mr Romney for his business record, refusal to release more tax returns and for spearheading a Republican "war on women".
The Democrats even choreographed a swipe at the former Massachusetts governor from beyond the grave, by playing a video of late Senator Ted Kennedy getting the better of Mr Romney during a debate in the 1994 election campaign for Mr Kennedy's Senate seat.
The Democrats highlighted Mr Obama's successes during his first term – from ordering the mission that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to the bailout of the car industry – while reminding voters of the difficulties he faced when he took office.
Mrs Obama urged party activists to rally around the president.
She said: "We must work like never before, and we must once again come together and stand together for the man we can trust to keep moving this great country forward, my husband, our president, Barack Obama."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article