Michelle focuses on family, upbringing

From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones Michelle Obama kept it short tonight, laying out her husband’s goals for the future while speaking personally and sometimes emotionally about her parents, her daughters, and her relationship with the man who hopes to become the next president. As she talked about the working class the parents who made it possible for her to go to college and law school and the future she wanted for her children, the subtle undercurrent was a message that her family was like other ordinary American families, with shared values and shared hopes. She tied her story and her husband’s story to the American story and to highlight the importance of hard work -- a word she sprinkled throughout her 20-minute speech -- all part of an effort to introduce Barack Obama, still a relative newcomer to the national stage, to people who are not familiar with him or who may doubt his ability to relate to their concerns. “What struck me when I first met Barack was that even though he had this funny ... (link)