First Lady says husband `a man we can trust'

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - First lady Michelle Obama lovingly praised her husband Tuesday night in a prime-time Democratic Convention speech as a devoted husband and caring father at home and a "man we can trust" to revive the nation's weak economy as president, beckoning the country to return him to the White House despite agonizingly slow recovery from recession.

"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," she told a nation impatient with slow economic progress and persistently high unemployment of 8.3 percent. "But eventually, we get there, we always do," she said in a speech that blended scenes from 23 years of marriages with the Obamas' time in the White House.

Mrs. Obama, given a huge ovation and describing herself as the "mom in chief," made no mention of Republican challenger Mitt Romney. But those who preceded her to the podium on the first night of the president's convention were scathing.

"If Mitt were president, he'd fire the reindeer and outsource the elves," declared former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland in one biting speech.

Tapped to deliver the keynote address, San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro said Romney was a millionaire politician who "quite simply, doesn't get it" when it comes to the needs of the middle class. Referring to the Republican's support for mandatory health insurance when he was governor of Massachusetts, he added, "Gov. Romney has undergone an extreme makeover, and it ain't pretty."

Polls made the race for the White House a tight one, almost certain to be decided in a string of eight or 10 battleground states where neither the president nor Romney holds a clear advantage. There was ample evidence during the day of an underperforming economy, including a report that said manufacturing activity declined for a third straight month and an announcement from the Treasury that the government's debt exceeded $16 trillion at the close of the business day.

There was no end to the appeals for donations to Obama's re-election campaign, falling further behind Romney in cash on hand with each passing month. "If you think Barack's the right man for the job, please show your support with a donation of $5 or more today," the first lady emailed supporters a little more than 90 minutes before her scheduled speech.

Obama was back home in the White House after a campaign appearance in Virginia as delegates cheered every mention of his name from the convention podium. He promised he'd be watching on television when his wife spoke.

"Believe it or not, when we were first married, our combined monthly student loan bills were actually higher than our mortgage," she told the convention. "We were so young, so in love and so in debt."

She confided that at family dinners in the White House with her and their daughters, the president joins in "strategizing about middle school friendships."

Mrs. Obama's poll numbers are better than her husband's, and her speech was aimed at building support for him, much as Ann Romney's remarks at last week's Republican National Convention were in service to her husband's presidential ambitions.

"When it comes to rebuilding our economy, Barack is thinking about folks like my dad - who worked at a municipal water plant - and his own grandmother, a bank secretary," the first lady said.

Referring to her own children as well as those of others, she said, "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 are willing to work for it, then we must ... stand together for the man we can trust to keep moving this great country forward, my husband, our president, President Barack Obama."