US Election: Obama Family's Tale 'quintessentially American'

The four-day Democratic convention to endorse Barack Obama as the party's first black presidential candidate was scheduled to kick off in Denver today with a speech by Michelle Obama tackling claims that he is elitist and un-American.

In her first major speech since her husband's campaign for the White House began 20 months ago, she was due to try to show the human face of a candidate that his rival, John McCain, portrays as celebrity-driven and out-of-touch with working-class America.

In an interview with CNN ahead of her speech she said she would present their family as typically American. "My father was a shift worker, a worker for the city all his life." It was not a privileged upbringing: "No silver spoons, no magic. Just parents who tried their best to leave the next generation just a little bit better off."

"I think our stories are the quintessential American stories."

Her speech was part of a three-pronged approach by her husband's campaign team for the convention: flesh out his personality, elaborate on his policies and present the Democratic party as united.

Although Obama has been a regular presence on US screens all this year, his life-story and politics are still relatively unknown to most Americans.

He has failed to connect with white working-class males in key states such as Ohio, partly on race grounds but also because he is viewed as a dilettante.

After two White House election defeats at the hands of Republicans, there is nervousness among Democrats in Denver about whether Obama can overcome the negatives stacked against him.

That concern was not helped today by a CNN poll showing him in a dead heat with McCain, at 47% for each. Obama had held a seven-point lead in last month's CNN poll.

For most of the campaign, Obama has kept his family, other than Michelle, in the background. But his wife, two daughters and other relatives visited the convention centre this morning to provide an early photo-opportunity and to scout out the hall ahead of her speech.

In an interview with the Denver Post published today, she said she would use her speech to share stories about "the values that drive him, experiences that shaped him, and why I believe he will be an extraordinary president. I'll also share stories about my life and my background with the country."

Previewing his wife's speech, Obama told supporters yesterday, at the end of a day campaigning in Wisconsin: "You'll have a sense of who she is and what our values are and how we're raising our kids. And I think what you'll conclude is: He's sort of like us. He comes from a middle-class background. He went to school on scholarships. He had to pay off student loans. He and his wife had to worry about child care. They had to figure out how to start a college fund for their kids."