Michelle Obama is a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School, now on leave from her job as an executive at one of Chicago's largest medical centers. Still, she stressed her blue-collar upbringing on the city's Southside and her concerns for her daughters' futures.
She described meeting her husband and discovering that, despite his "funny name," they shared the same values, in his case instilled by the single mother and grandparents who raised him: "That you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you're going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them, and even if you don't agree with them."
She also reached out to Clinton's supporters, even before she praised her husband's running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, saying the votes cast for New York's senator "put those 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling so that our daughters -- and sons -- can dream a little bigger and aim a little higher." The crowd roared its approval.
The emotional high point of the evening was a surprise appearance by Kennedy, 76, who is battling brain cancer. He walked gingerly across the stage flashing his thumbs up to delegates, who leaped to their feet in an exuberant ovation.
When he spoke, his voice was strong. Looking out on a sea of blue-and-white "Kennedy" signs, the snowy-haired senator summoned memories of his brother, the late President John F. Kennedy, and the man-on-the-moon challenge he laid down for his countrymen.
Kennedy urged Americans to "rise to our best ideals" in November and offered Obama as the embodiment of that aspiration. "Barack Obama will close the book on the old politics of race and gender, of group against group, of straight against gay," Kennedy said.
Delaware Sen. Biden was among those rising to their feet in tribute. Kennedy's niece, California First Lady Maria Shriver, looked on with tears in her eyes.
But it was not all high tone and uplifting oratory.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) was among those who took up a cudgel against McCain, criticizing the Arizona senator's positions on issues including the economy, healthcare and energy policy.
"Republicans say John McCain has experience," Pelosi told the crowd. "We say John McCain has the experience of being wrong!" She led delegates in a call and response: "Barack Obama is right," Pelosi said, and the faithful responded, "John McCain is wrong!"
