Michelle Obama: 'I am married to a man that gets it'

Michelle Obama, the wife of the Democratic presidential nominee, drew an ebullient, overflow crowd Tuesday in Colorado Springs, declaring, "The old ways just haven't worked. Isn't it time for new solutions?"

Obama told her audience at the City Auditorium that her first concern was her two daughters, and described her anticipated role as first lady as "mom in chief."

But she displayed a seasoned campaigner's touch in whipping up the crowd on some of the top issues of Barack Obama's campaign, touching on jobs, health care, the Iraq war, veterans, education, taxes and the price of gasoline and groceries.

"We're all feeling it," she said. "For eight years we haven't seen the kind of progress that we know we should be making."

The Colorado Springs Fire Department closed the doors when the City Auditorium was filled to its 2,500 capacity. Capt. Mike Dalton of the Fire Department said about 1,000 were left outside.

The total crowd was less than half the number that attended a rally for the Republican vice presidential candidate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, at the Sky Sox ballpark Nov. 20.

Obama's running mate, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, drew about 1,500 to Sierra High School in the Springs a week ago.

But after Barack Obama drew more than 100,000 to a rally Sunday in Denver, the turnout for Michelle Obama - not a candidate, merely a candidate's spouse - in conservative Colorado Springs seemed to reinforce a feeling that Obama's campaign in swing-state Colorado is carrying strong momentum into the final days of the campaign.

To become one of the first in line to hear Michelle Obama, Shirley Coleman of Colorado Springs said she arrived at the City Auditorium at 11 a.m. "But politically speaking, I've been waiting for this event for 40 years," she said.

Michelle Obama spoke for 35 minutes, without a teleprompter, around the theme of "Barack Obama gets it."

She described her husband's working-class roots and upbringing by a single mother.

"I am married to a man that gets it," she said, and not in "some philosophical way, some disconnected way. He gets it because he's lived it."

She expressed relief that the campaign is drawing to a close. "We have seven more days," she said. "And once we get through this day - it's almost over - it'll be six. Yay!"

But with the Obama-Biden ticket holding a steady lead in statewide and national polls, she warned against complacency. She encouraged every member of the audience to help get out the vote in the remaining days of absentee balloting, which ends Friday, and on Election Day next Tuesday.

The warmup speakers included U.S. Sen Ken Salazar; Gov. Bill Ritter's wife, Jeannie; Carla Sizer of Falcon, whose son, a serviceman, was killed in Iraq; and John Morse, the only El Paso County Democrat in the State Senate, who announced that he was about to introduce a member of the Colorado Springs City Council.
Groans turned to cheers when Morse said the speaker, Jan Martin, is an Obama supporter.

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Contact the writer: 476-1654 or dean.toda@gazette.com