DENVER -- Michelle Obama, talking of the similarities in hers and her husband's upbringing and values, told the Democrats last night it was time to "stop doubting and start dreaming."

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Moments later, Mr. Obama, campaigning in Kansas City, appeared via satellite drawing cheers from delegates. "Hi, daddy!" said Sasha Obama, 7, speaking to her father from the podium. "What city are you in?"

Convention planners hoped the prime-time address by Mr. Obama's wife would begin the work of casting the Illinois senator as a leader with classic American values.

Mrs. Obama spoke of Americans who are "driven by a simple belief that the world as it is just won't do -- that we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be." Her next words -- "That is why I love this country" -- brought cheering delegates to their feet in what was a clear attempt by Mrs. Obama undo the damage from her controversial statement in February that "for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country."

Mrs. Obama included a tribute to her husband's former rival, Sen Hillary Rodham Clinton, crediting her with having placed "18 million cracks in the glass ceiling" that constrains women's ambitions.

She described her own blue-collar upbringing in Chicago and the hard work her parents put into raising a family. She said Barack Obama, though he was raised in a different part of the world, had a similar life and adopted the same beliefs

"Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values, like you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond."

She sought to paint a portrait of her husband in intensely personal terms, describing him as "the same man I fell in love with 19 years ago."

"I come here as a wife who loves my husband and believes he will be an extraordinary president," said Mrs. Obama.

While the couple's "improbable journey" to the top tier of American politics has been rapid, "he's the same man who drove me and our new baby daughter home from the hospital 10 years ago this summer, inching along at a snail's pace, peering at us anxiously through the rearview mirror, feeling the whole weight of her future in his hands, determined to give her everything he'd struggled so hard for himself, determined to give her something he never had: the affirming embrace of a father's love."

Political observers have said Mrs. Obama needs to define herself in more human terms to voters, some of whom perceive her as too hard-edged or outspoken. In heartfelt, emotional language, she described her brother Craig Robinson -- who introduced her -- as "my mentor, my protector and my lifelong friend."

Her daughters, she said, "are the heart of my heart and the center of my world" --"they're the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning, and the last thing I think about when I go to bed at night. Their future -- and all our children's future -- is my stake in this election."