CHARLOTTE, N.C. — First Lady Mrs. Michelle Obama was the highlight speaker Tuesday night as the gavel came down to start the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., the Queen City.

"We must once again come together and stand together,” Obama said. “Barack knows what it means when a family struggles. He knows what it means to want something more for your kids and grandkids. Barack knows the American dream because he lived it, and he wants everyone in the country to have the same opportunity, no matter who we are, or where we're from, or what we look like, or who we love. He believes that when you've worked hard and done well, and walked through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you."

She said the most important role for her is “Mom-in-Cheif.”

I went to where the Minnesota delegation was seated and spotted Mr. Don Bye, an attorney from Duluth whom I met many conventions ago.

"At the Democratic National Convention in 1968 in Chicago, I voted on the floor fights to seat black delegates. Now I vote to reelect a black president,” he said.

Karen Burney, of Sacramento California, a genealogist who has traced her ancestors back to when they were owned by Confederate founder Henry Marshall.

"I recently read a letter Henry wrote describing his attendance at the inauguration of Jefferson Davis,” she said. “He called it historic. Now almost 150 years later I am a delegate to reelect the first African president."

We Americans have come a long way as a democracy, and regardless of our politics we should all celebrate that we have become a more tolerant and diverse nation. On Wednesday night, former Pres. Bill Clinton became the first former president to nominate someone for president.

The Time-Warner Cable Arena was filled to the rafters as former President Clinton said, "President Obama's approach embodies the values, the ideas and the direction America must take to build a 21st Century version of the American dream in a nation of shared opportunities, shared prosperity, and shared responsibilities.

"If you want a country of shared prosperity and shared responsibility, a ‘we're all in this together’ society you should vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden,” he said. 

At the end of Pres. Clinton's speech, President Obama joined him on the stage to thunderous applause.