[media-credit name=’JEFF SCHORFHEIDE/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]

In the final hours Monday before today?s presidential
primary, Michelle Obama told a crowd of 700 that ?hope is making a comeback,?
making her case for why her husband is uniquely qualified for the job of
president.

She defended Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., against claims that
he lacks experience and specific plans, saying he ?leaped over? the bars that
were set for him.

Obama said through Republican and Democratic
administrations, life hasn?t gotten much better for the average citizen.

?It?s not that we?re suffering from a deficit of policies and plans,? she said.
?Plans are important, I agree. If Barack didn?t have a plan, I wouldn?t be up
here.?

She said, as an example, education doesn?t require a new,
complicated plan because ?we know what good schools look like.? Instead, the
challenge is that the country lacks the political will to make good schools
available to all children instead of a lucky few, according to Obama.

?There?s something missing in our leadership, and that?s the
understanding that we have to change,? she said. ?We have to have leadership
that will inspire us to be different.?

Obama also praised her husband for choosing to work as a
community organizer after law school, rather than earning more money doing
something else.

?Imagine a president of the United States who brings that
kind of experience to the White House, because we haven?t seen that in my
lifetime.?

Obama highlighted her husband?s accomplishments in the Illinois
state Legislature, like implementing an earned income tax credit for working
families, ethics reform, working on racial profiling and addressing a ?broken?
death penalty.

She added her husband actually has more legislative
experience than Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., despite his fewer years in the
U.S. Senate.

?We always applaud experience that?s measured by wealth and
power. ? We give that way more credit than folks who have made sacrifices to
work on the ground with real people,? Obama said.

State Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona, who attended the event,
said legislative experience in the presidential race is ?only a small part? and
its importance is overstated.

?Really what?s important is life experience, and I think
what this actually demonstrates is his ability to organize a grassroots
campaign in a way that has not been done before,? Miller said. ?To me, that?s
what demonstrates his ability to lead and to execute and to get a job done. ? Look
at all the very experienced people who were running who went nowhere.?

Obama pointed to a lack of college affordability as a
problem in the nation.

?For every child in college today, there are tens of
thousands of them that didn?t get it, not because they weren?t ready, but
because they couldn?t afford it,? she said.

She added she and her husband were only three years out of
paying student loans because they took relatively low-paying jobs in the
community.

?We did what we thought we were supposed to do,? Obama said.
?But we found ourselves at a time when we had to be saving for our kids?
college, but we hadn?t paid off our own debt, and there are millions of young
couples out there like us, … doing exactly what we?ve asked them to do, but
they?re not able to pay for their kids? college because they still owe.?

University of Wisconsin senior Meghan Roh has been a
longtime supporter of Barack Obama, but hearing his wife speak solidified that
support, she said.

?I think she does a very good job delivering his message,
but putting her own spin on it as a mother,? Roh said.

According to Michelle Obama, the youth vote has already
played a part in her husband?s success, stressing the importance of new voters
taking a seat at the table of their democracy.

?Barack has always said a huge part of the victory will be
getting more people engaged, and I?d say he?s already helped to do that,? she
said.

David Keesey-Berg, a Madison resident, said he appreciated
Obama?s sincerity and warmth.

?She really made herself and Barack come to life,?
Keesey-Berg said. ?She?s a person who represents, incarnates, the values of not
the middle class, but the people.?