WS Chronicle

CHARLOTTE – First Lady Michelle Obama reminded a convention hall full of black Democrats Wednesday that they have today and the next two months to determine whether Nov. 7 – the day after voters elect the man who will lead the nation for the next four years – will be sunny or cloudy.

“On Nov. 7, you will wake saying ‘could have done more’ or feeling the promise of four more years,” she told members of the African American Caucus of the Democratic National Convention at the Charlotte Convention Center.  

Mrs. Obama was greeted like a rock star by Caucus members, who were still pumped from the Convention speech the First Lady gave the night before. Though that speech was hailed as a home-run by media and political pundits, Mrs. Obama took no time to bask in the praise. She came to this gathering of black DNC delegates from across the nation with a mission.

“We don’t have a single minute to waste,” she said. “If you don’t live in a battleground state, get to one (to volunteer)! If you can afford it, write a check … reach out to your friends, your neighbors, that nephew you have not seen in a while, find them and make sure every single one of them is registered and gets to the polls.”

All political gauges show a tight contest between the First Lady’s husband, President Barack Obama, and Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Mrs. Obama expects a neck-and-neck contest up until and through Election Day.

“In the end, this election could come down to a few thousand votes in a single battleground state,” she said. 

And if DNC host state North Carolina is that battleground state, residents here will likely have to vote in greater numbers than they did in 2008.

“(We won) North Carolina by 14,000 votes,” Mrs. Obama said of her husband’s razor-thin victory in the once solidly Red State, “but that is just five votes per precinct … That is just five people!” 

Reemphasizing some of the points she made during her Convention address, the First Lady said the election, in a nutshell, is about what set of values the nation wants its children to learn, one that teaches that the spoils go to just the very few or the one that President Obama is pushing.

“My husband has been working hard to ensure that all of us can share in the great promise of this country,” she said.