Thank you - thank you so much - thank you - thank you so much

With your help... Let me announce ... 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 you 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, in 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.

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.

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.

Now, how would 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’d 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.

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 half a size too small.

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.

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.

Like - 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.

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, 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.

We learned about honesty and integrity –

that the truth matters, that you don’t take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules. [Applause]

And success doesn’t count unless you earn it fair and square.

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.

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:

you know, 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.

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

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’ve 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.

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,

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,

and he wants everyone in this country - everyone - to have the 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.

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 is the same man - he’s the same man who, when our girls were first born,

would anxiously check their cribs every few minutes

to ensure they were still breathing,

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,

and 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 people with so much promise but so few opportunities.

[From the audience] I love you Michelle Obama (?)

And 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]