The White House
Office of the First Lady
For Immediate Release September 05, 2012
Remarks by the First Lady at the Democratic
National Convention
Time Warner Cable Arena
Charlotte, North Carolina
September 4, 2012
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
