Democrats kick off their 2012 convention on Tuesday, with First Lady Michelle Obama firing the first shots of a three-day salvo aimed at breaking the electoral deadlock with Republicans.
With just 63 days until Americans decide who will occupy the Oval Office for the next four years, the First Lady will make the case it should be her husband, the country’s first black president.
Michelle, who is more popular than the president, is expected to woo women voters, an effort to eke out any advantage in a race marked by too-close-to-call polls and a dearth of undecided voters.
Her speech comes four years after she vowed – before a stadium full of delegates in Denver, Colorado – that Barack Obama, despite his “funny name”, would make an “extraordinary president”.
Today, with economic malaise casting serious doubt on that claim, Democrats gather in Charlotte in the battleground state of North Carolina for an event that provides a vital nationwide platform seen just once every four years.
Their first task will be to counter the cutting Republican charge that, though his election was historic and rightly celebrated, Obama’s presidency has been a bust.