Video (22min 15sec): Michelle Obama DNC Keynote Speech. "As
you might imagine, for Barack, running for president is nothing
compared to that first game of basketball with my brother, Craig.
I can't tell you how much it means to have Craig and my mom here tonight.
Like Craig, I can feel my dad looking down on us, just as I've felt his
presence in every grace-filled moment of my life.
At 6-foot-6, I've often felt like Craig was looking down on me too
… literally. But the truth is, both when we were kids and
today, he wasn't looking down on me. He was watching over me.
And he's been there for me every step of the way since that clear February
day 19 months ago, when — with little more than our faith in
each other and a hunger for change — we joined my husband,
Barack Obama, on the improbable journey that's brought us to this
moment.
But each of us also comes here tonight by
way of our own improbable journey.
I come here
tonight as a sister, blessed with a brother who is my mentor, my
protector and my lifelong friend.
I come here as a
wife who loves my husband and believes he will be an extraordinary
president.
I come here as a mom whose girls are the
heart of my heart and the center of my world — they're the
first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning, and the last
thing I think about when I go to bed at night. Their future —
and all our children's future — is my stake in this election.
And
I come here as a daughter — raised on the South Side of
Chicago by a father who was a blue-collar city worker and a mother who
stayed at home with my brother and me. My mother's love has always been
a sustaining force for our family, and one of my greatest joys is
seeing her integrity, her compassion and her intelligence reflected in
my own daughters.
My dad was our rock. Although he
was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in his early 30s, he was our
provider, our champion, our hero. As he got sicker, it got harder for
him to walk, it took him longer to get dressed in the morning. But if
he was in pain, he never let on. He never stopped smiling and laughing
— even while struggling to button his shirt, even while using
two canes to get himself across the room to give my mom a kiss. He just
woke up a little earlier and worked a little harder.
He
and my mom poured everything they had into me and Craig. It was the
greatest gift a child can receive: never doubting for a single minute
that you're loved, and cherished, and have a place in this world. And
thanks to their faith and hard work, we both were able to go on to
college. So I know firsthand from their lives — and mine
— that the American dream endures.
And you
know, what struck me when I first met Barack was that even though he
had this funny name, even though he'd grown up all the way across the
continent in Hawaii, his family was so much like mine. He was raised by
grandparents who were working-class folks just like my parents, and by
a single mother who struggled to pay the bills just like we did. Like
my family, they scrimped and saved so that he could have opportunities
they never had themselves. And Barack and I were raised with so many of
the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that
your word is your bond and you do what you say you're going to do; that
you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them,
and even if you don't agree with them.
And Barack and
I set out to build lives guided by these values, and pass them on to
the next generation. Because we want our children — and all
children in this nation — to know that the only limit to the
height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your
willingness to work for them.
And as our friendship
grew, and I learned more about Barack, he introduced me to the work
he'd done when he first moved to Chicago after college. Instead of
heading to Wall Street, Barack had gone to work in neighborhoods
devastated when steel plants shut down and jobs dried up. And he'd been
invited back to speak to people from those neighborhoods about how to
rebuild their community.
The people gathered
together that day were ordinary folks doing the best they could to
build a good life. They were parents living paycheck to paycheck;
grandparents trying to get by on a fixed income; men frustrated that
they couldn't support their families after their jobs disappeared.
Those folks weren't asking for a handout or a shortcut. They were ready
to work — they wanted to contribute. They believed
— like you and I believe — that America should be a
place where you can make it if you try.
Barack stood
up that day, and spoke words that have stayed with me ever since. He
talked about "The world as it is" and "The world as it should be." And
he said that all too often, we accept the distance between the two, and
settle for the world as it is — even when it doesn't reflect
our values and aspirations. But he reminded us that we know what our
world should look like. We know what fairness and justice and
opportunity look like. And he urged us to believe in ourselves
— to find the strength within ourselves to strive for the
world as it should be. And isn't that the great American story?
It's
the story of men and women gathered in churches and union halls, in
town squares and high school gyms — people who stood up and
marched and risked everything they had — refusing to settle,
determined to mold our future into the shape of our ideals.
It
is because of their will and determination that this week, we celebrate
two anniversaries: the 88th anniversary of women winning the right to
vote, and the 45th anniversary of that hot summer day when [Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr.] lifted our sights and our hearts with his dream for
our nation.
I stand here today at the crosscurrents
of that history — knowing that my piece of the American dream
is a blessing hard won by those who came before me. All of them driven
by the same conviction that drove my dad to get up an hour early each
day to painstakingly dress himself for work. The same conviction that
drives the men and women I've met all across this country:
People
who work the day shift, kiss their kids goodnight, and head out for the
night shift — without disappointment, without regret
— that goodnight kiss a reminder of everything they're
working for.
The military families who say grace
each night with an empty seat at the table. The servicemen and women
who love this country so much, they leave those they love most to
defend it.
The young people across America serving
our communities — teaching children, cleaning up
neighborhoods, caring for the least among us each and every day.
People
like Hillary Clinton, 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.
People
like Joe Biden, who's never forgotten where he came from and never
stopped fighting for folks who work long hours and face long odds and
need someone on their side again.
All of us 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.
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.
That is why I
love this country.
And in my own life, in my own
small way, I've tried to give back to this country that has given me so
much. That's why I left a job at a law firm for a career in public
service, working to empower young people to volunteer in their
communities. Because I believe that each of us — no matter
what our age or background or walk of life — each of us has
something to contribute to the life of this nation.
It's
a belief Barack shares — a belief at the heart of his life's
work.
It's what he did all those years ago, on the
streets of Chicago, setting up job training to get people back to work
and after-school programs to keep kids safe — working block
by block to help people lift up their families.
It's
what he did in the Illinois Senate, moving people from welfare to jobs,
passing tax cuts for hard-working families, and making sure women get
equal pay for equal work.
It's what he's done in the
United States Senate, fighting to ensure the men and women who serve
this country are welcomed home not just with medals and parades but
with good jobs and benefits and health care — including
mental health care.
That's why he's running
— to end the war in Iraq responsibly, to build an economy
that lifts every family, to make health care available for every
American, and to make sure every child in this nation gets a world
class education all the way from preschool to college. That's what
Barack Obama will do as president of the United States of America.
He'll
achieve these goals the same way he always has — by bringing
us together and reminding us how much we share and how alike we really
are. You see, Barack doesn't care where you're from, or what your
background is, or what party — if any — you belong
to. That's not how he sees the world. He knows that 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.
It was
strong enough to bring hope to those neighborhoods in Chicago.
It
was strong enough to bring hope to the mother he met worried about her
child in Iraq; hope to the man who's unemployed, but can't afford gas
to find a job; hope to the student working nights to pay for her
sister's health care, sleeping just a few hours a day.
And
it was strong enough to bring hope to people who came out on a cold
Iowa night and became the first voices in this chorus for change that's
been echoed by millions of Americans from every corner of this nation.
Millions
of Americans who know that Barack understands their dreams; that Barack
will fight for people like them; and that Barack will finally bring the
change we need.
And in the end, after all that's
happened these past 19 months, the Barack Obama I know today is the
same man I fell in love with 19 years ago. He's the same man who drove
me and our new baby daughter home from the hospital 10 years ago this
summer, inching along at a snail's pace, peering anxiously at us in the
rearview mirror, feeling the whole weight of her future in his hands,
determined to give her everything he'd struggled so hard for himself,
determined to give her what he never had: the affirming embrace of a
father's love.
And as I tuck that little girl and
her little sister into bed 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. How this time, in this great
country — where a girl from the South Side of Chicago can go
to college and law school, and the son of a single mother from Hawaii
can go all the way to the White House – we committed
ourselves to building the world as it should be.
So
tonight, in honor of my father's memory and my daughters' future
— out of gratitude to those whose triumphs we mark this week,
and those whose everyday sacrifices have brought us to this moment
— let us devote ourselves to finishing their work; let us
work together to fulfill their hopes; and let us stand together to
elect Barack Obama president of the United States of America.
Thank
you, God bless you, and God bless America.
This is a full trabscript of Michelle Obama's speech to the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
