Democratic National
Convention
Time Warner
Cable Arena
Charlotte,
North Carolina
September 4,
2012
[White House Transcript]
10:38 P.M. EDT
MRS. OBAMA: Thank you. Thank you so much.
(Applause.) Thank you. Thank you so much.
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years!
MRS. OBAMA: With your help. With your help.
(Applause.)
Let me start -- I want to start by thanking Elaine. Elaine, thank
you
so much. We are so grateful for your family’s service and
sacrifice,
and we will always have your back. (Applause.)
Over the past few years as First Lady, I have had the extraordinary
privilege of traveling all across this country. And everywhere
I’ve
gone, and the people I’ve met, and the stories I’ve heard, I have seen
the very best of the American spirit. I have seen it in the
incredible
kindness and warmth that people have shown me and my family, especially
our girls.
I’ve seen it in teachers in a near-bankrupt school district who vowed
to keep teaching without pay. (Applause.) I’ve seen it in
people who
become heroes at a moment’s notice, diving into harm’s way to save
others; flying across the country to put out a fire; driving for hours
to bail out a flooded town.
And I’ve seen it in our men and women in uniform and our proud military
families. (Applause.) In wounded warriors who tell me
they’re not
just going to walk again, they’re going to run, and they’re going to
run marathons. (Applause.) In the young man blinded by a
bomb in
Afghanistan who said, simply, "I’d give my eyes 100 times again to have
the chance to do what I have done and what I can still do."
Every day, the people I meet inspire me. Every day, they make me
proud. Every day, they remind me how blessed we are to live in
the
greatest nation on Earth. (Applause.)
Serving as your First Lady is an honor and a privilege. But back
when
we first came together four years ago, I still had some concerns about
this journey we’d begun. While I believed deeply in my husband’s
vision for this country, and I was certain he would make an
extraordinary President, like any mother, I was worried about what it
would mean for our girls if he got that chance. How will we keep
them
grounded under the glare of the national spotlight? How would
they
feel being uprooted from their school, their friends, and the only home
they’d ever known?
See, our life before moving to Washington was filled with simple joys
-- Saturdays at soccer games, Sundays at Grandma’s house, and a date
night for Barack and me was either dinner or a movie, because as an
exhausted mom, I couldn’t stay awake for both. (Laughter.)
And the truth is, I loved the life we had built for our girls, and I
deeply loved the man I had built that life with -- and I didn’t want
that to change if he became President. (Applause.) I loved
Barack
just the way he was.
You see, even back then, when Barack was a senator and a presidential
candidate, to me, he was still the guy who picked me up for our dates
in a car that was so rusted out, I could actually see the pavement
going by in a hole in the passenger side door. (Laughter.)
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 a half size too
small. (Laughter.)
But, see, when Barack started telling me about his family -– see, now,
that’s when I knew I had found a kindred spirit, someone whose values
and upbringing were so much like mine.
You see, 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. (Applause.)
My father was a pump operator at the city water plant, and he was
diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis when my brother and I were
young.
And even as a kid, I knew there were plenty of days when he was in
pain, and I knew there were plenty of mornings when it was a struggle
for him to simply get out of bed.
But every morning, I watched my father wake up with a smile, grab his
walker, prop himself up against the bathroom sink, and slowly shave and
button his uniform. And when he returned home after a long day’s
work,
my brother and I would stand at the top of the stairs of our little
apartment, patiently waiting to greet him, watching as he reached down
to lift one leg, and then the other, to slowly climb his way into our
arms.
But despite these challenges, my dad hardly ever missed a day of
work.
He and my mom were determined to give me and my brother the kind of
education they could only dream of. (Applause.)
And when my brother and I finally made it to college, nearly all of our
tuition came from student loans and grants. But my dad still had
to
pay a tiny portion of that tuition himself. And every semester,
he was
determined to pay that bill right on time, even taking out loans when
he fell short. He was so proud to be sending his kids to college,
and
he made sure we never missed a registration deadline because his check
was late.
You see, for my dad, that’s what it meant to be a man.
(Applause.)
Like so many of us, that was the measure of his success in life --
being able to earn a decent living that allowed him to support his
family.
And as I got to know Barack, I realized that even though he had grown
up all the way across the country, he’d been brought up just like
me.
Barack was raised by a single mom who struggled to pay the bills, and
by grandparents who stepped in when she needed help. Barack’s
grandmother started out as a secretary at a community bank, and she
moved quickly up the ranks, but like so many women, she hit a glass
ceiling. And for years, men no more qualified than she was -- men
she
had actually trained -- were promoted up the ladder ahead of her,
earning more and more money while Barack’s family continued to scrape
by.
But day after day, she kept on waking up at dawn to catch the bus,
arriving at work before anyone else, giving her best without complaint
or regret. And she would often tell Barack, "So long as you kids
do
well, Bar, that’s all that really matters."
Like so many American families, our families weren’t asking for
much.
They didn’t begrudge anyone else’s success or care that others had much
more than they did -- in fact, they admired it. (Applause.)
They
simply believed in that fundamental American promise that, even if you
don’t start out with much, if you work hard and do what you’re supposed
to do, you should be able to build a decent life for yourself and an
even better life for your kids and grandkids. That’s how they
raised
us (Applause.) That’s what we learned from their example.
We learned about dignity and decency -- that how hard you work matters
more than how much you make; that helping others means more than just
getting ahead yourself. (Applause.) We learned about
honesty and
integrity -- that the truth matters -- (applause) -- that you don’t
take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules; and success doesn’t
count unless you earn it fair and square. (Applause.) We
learned
about gratitude and humility -- that so many people had a hand in our
success, from the teachers who inspired us to the janitors who kept our
school clean. (Applause.) And we were taught to value
everyone’s
contribution and treat everyone with respect.
Those are the values that Barack and I -- and so many of you -- are
trying to pass on to our own children. That’s who we are.
And standing before you four years ago, I knew that I didn’t want any
of that to change if Barack became President. Well, 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 -- no, it reveals who you
are.
(Applause.)
You see, I’ve gotten to see up close and personal what being President
really looks like. And I’ve seen how the issues that come across
a
President’s desk are always the hard ones -- the problems where no
amount of data or numbers will get you to the right answer; the
judgment calls where the stakes are so high, and there is no margin for
error. And as President, you're going to get all kinds of advice
from
all kinds of people. But at the end of the day, when it comes
time to
make that decision, as President, all you have to guide you are your
values and your vision, and the life experiences that make you who you
are. (Applause.)
So 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. (Applause.) That’s why he cut taxes for working
families and
small businesses, and fought to get the auto industry back on its
feet. (Applause.)
That’s how he brought our economy from the brink of collapse to
creating jobs again -- jobs you can raise a family on, good jobs right
here in the United States of America. (Applause.)
When it comes to the health of our families, Barack refused to listen
to all those folks who told him to leave health reform for another day,
another President. (Applause.) He didn’t care whether it
was the easy
thing to do politically -- no, that’s not how he was raised. He
cared
that it was the right thing to do. (Applause.)
He did it because he believes that here in America, our grandparents
should be able to afford their medicine, our kids should be able to see
a doctor when they’re sick, and no one in this country should ever go
broke because of an accident or an illness.
(Applause.)
And he believes that women are more than capable of making our own
choices about our bodies and our health care. (Applause.)
That’s what
my husband stands for. (Applause.)
When it comes to giving our kids the education they deserve, Barack
knows that, like me and like so many of you, he never could have
attended college without financial aid. And believe it or not,
when we
were first married, our combined monthly student loan bill was actually
higher than our mortgage. (Laughter.) Yeah, we were so
young, so in
love -- and so in debt. (Laughter.)
And that's why Barack has fought so hard to increase student aid and
keep interest rates down -- (applause) -- because he wants every young
person to fulfill their promise and be able to attend college without a
mountain of debt. (Applause.)
So in the end, for Barack, these issues aren’t political -- they’re
personal. Because Barack knows what it means when a family
struggles.
He knows what it means to want something more for your kids and
grandkids. Barack knows the American Dream because he’s lived
it.
(Applause.) And he wants everyone in this country -- everyone --
to
have that same opportunity, no matter who we are, or where we’re from,
or what we look like, or who we love.
(Applause.)
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. No, you reach back, and you give other folks the same
chances
that helped you succeed. (Applause.)
So when people ask me whether being in the White House has changed my
husband, I can honestly say that when it comes to his character, and
his convictions, and his heart, Barack Obama is still the same man I
fell in love with all those years ago. (Applause.) He’s the
same man
who started his career by turning down high-paying jobs and instead
working in struggling neighborhoods 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.
(Applause.)
He’s the same man, when our girls were first born, would anxiously
check their cribs every few minutes to ensure that they were still
breathing -- (laughter) -- proudly showing them off to everyone we
knew.
You see, that’s the man who sits down with me and our girls for dinner
nearly every night, patiently answering questions about issues in the
news, strategizing about middle school friendships.
(Laughter.)
That’s the man I see in those quiet moments late at night, hunched over
his desk, poring over the letters people have sent him. The
letter
from the father struggling to pay his bills, from the woman dying of
cancer whose insurance company won’t cover her care, from the young
person with so much promise but so few opportunities.
I see the concern in his eyes and I hear the determination in his voice
as he tells me, "You won’t believe what these folks are going through,
Michelle -- it’s not right. We’ve got to keep working to fix
this.
We’ve got so much more to do." (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more
years!
MRS. OBAMA: I see how those stories -- our collection of
struggles and
hopes and dreams -- I see how that's what drives Barack Obama every
single day.
And I didn’t think that it was possible, but let me tell you, today I
love my husband even more than I did four years ago, even more than I
did 23 years ago, when we first met. (Applause.) Let me
tell you
why. See, I love that he has never forgotten how he
started. I love
that we can trust Barack to do what he says he’s going to do, even when
it’s hard -- especially when it’s hard.
(Applause.)
I love that for Barack, there is no such thing as "us" and "them" -- he
doesn’t care whether you’re a Democrat, a Republican, or none of the
above; he knows that we all love our country. And he is always
ready
to listen to good ideas, he’s always looking for the very best in
everyone he meets.
And I love that even in the toughest moments, when we’re all sweating
it -- when we’re worried that the bill won’t pass, and it seems like
all is lost -- see, Barack never lets himself get distracted by the
chatter and the noise. No, just like his grandmother, he just
keeps
getting up and moving forward -- with patience and wisdom, and courage
and grace. (Applause.)
And he reminds me that we are playing a long game here, and that change
is hard and change is slow, and it never happens all at once. But
eventually we get there. We always do.
We get there because of folks like my dad, folks like Barack’s
grandmother -- men and women who said to themselves, "I may not have a
chance to fulfill my dreams, but maybe my children will, maybe my
grandchildren will."
See, so many of us stand here tonight because of their sacrifice, and
longing, and steadfast love -- they swallowed their fears and doubts
and did what was hard. (Applause.)
So today, when the challenges we face start to seem overwhelming -- or
even impossible -- let us never forget that doing the impossible is the
history of this nation. It is who we are as Americans. It
is how this
country was built. (Applause.)
And if our parents and grandparents could toil and struggle for us --
if they could raise beams of steel to the sky, send a man to the moon,
connect the world with the touch of a button -- then surely we can keep
on sacrificing and building for our own kids and grandkids,
right?
(Applause.)
And if so many brave men and women could wear our country’s uniform and
sacrifice their lives for our most fundamental rights, then surely we
can do our part as citizens of this great democracy to exercise those
rights. Surely we can get to the polls on Election Day and make
our
voices heard. (Applause.)
If farmers and blacksmiths could win independence from an empire, if
immigrants could leave behind everything they knew for a better life on
our shores, if women could be dragged to jail for seeking the vote, if
a generation could defeat a depression and define greatness for all
time, if a young preacher could lift us to the mountaintop with his
righteous dream -- (applause) -- and if proud Americans can be who they
are and boldly stand at the altar with who they love -- (applause) --
then surely, surely we can give everyone in this country a fair chance
at that great American Dream. (Applause.)
Because in the end, more than anything else, that is the story of this
country -- the story of unwavering hope grounded in unyielding
struggle. That is what has made my story, and Barack’s story, and
so
many other American stories possible.
And let me tell you something. I say all of this tonight not just
as
First Lady, no, not just as a wife. You see, at the end of the
day, my
most important title is still "mom-in-chief." (Applause.) My
daughters
are still the heart of my heart and the center of my world.
But let me tell you, today, I have none of those worries from four
years ago -- no, not about whether Barack and I were doing what was
best for our girls. Because today, I know from experience that if
I
truly want to leave a better world for my daughters -- and for all of
our sons and daughters, if we want to give all of our children a
foundation for their dreams and opportunities worthy of their promise,
if we want to give them that sense of limitless possibility -- that
belief that here in America, there is always something better out there
if you’re willing to work for it -- (applause) -- then we must work
like never before. (Applause.)
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. (Applause.)
Thank you. God bless you, and God bless America.
(Applause.)
END
September 4, 2012
11:03 P.M. EDT