CHARLOTTE, NC — First Lady Michelle Obama last night delivered a stirring pitch for her husband’s re-election, and told a roaring Democratic convention that she overcame her anxiety about life in the White House.
“Serving as your first lady has been 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,’’ she said, adding that she worried mainly over how the change would affect her family.
She said she’s gotten over that, then delivered a passionate address on why her husband deserves re-election.
“Barack knows the American Dream because he’s lived it,” she told the adoring crowd of party faithful already primed for her speech by a video on her life.
Wearing a pink summer dress, the first lady — who took heat four years ago for saying she was proud of the country “for the first time” when her husband was running — stressed, “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.
“[Barack] believes that when you’ve worked hard and done well and walked through that doorway of opportunity . . . you don’t slam it shut behind you. You reach back and you give other folks the same chances that helped you succeed.”
She never mentioned her husband’s wealthy foe, Mitt Romney.
While the first lady brought smiles to the evening, a lousy weather forecast — and empty seats — threatened plans for the president’s big night tomorrow in an open-air stadium.
The campaign scrambled to decide whether to move his speech, planned for the outdoor Bank of America Stadium, to the smaller, indoor Time Warner Cable Arena, where his wife spoke last night.
Administration officials insisted it was because of the threat of thunderstorms — but Dems have struggled to fill the stadium, which seats more than 70,000.
Democrats were in full spin mode to fend off a potentially embarrassing TV shot of hundreds of empty seats, according to a carefully prepared list of talking points for Obama bigs that was obtained by The Post.
The p.r. document features the question: “Are you worried you won’t fill the stadium?” and then provides the suggested answer.
“No . . . while there will be thousands in the stadium, even more Americans will watch the president accept the nomination.”