Gregoire, Michelle Obama, Biden talk economics

DENVER - Michelle Obama, the wife of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, Tuesday oversaw a roundtable discussion at the Democratic National Convention on economic issues that affect women. It was a role she was very familiar with, having done dozens of these events across the country throughout her husband's campaign, including one in Washington earlier this year.

Obama was joined by a group of women from across the country who have faced economic hardships as well as four of the country's five women governors: Arizona's Janet Napolitano, Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, Delaware's Ruth Ann Minner and Washington's Chris Gregoire. Many of the governors said they have faced similar hardships in their own lives.

Despite the event being geared toward women, the roundtable had one surprise special guest - Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware. It was just his second public appearance since his Barack Obama named him as his running mate in Springfield, Ill. this past Saturday.

"Wasn't that a nice surprise?" Obama asked as the crowd roared in approval after her introduction of Biden, comparing it to last night's surprise for her two daughters on the convention stage when their father greeted them via satellite.

"I know my role," Biden joked about being in a room full of strong women, and told of the strong women that make up his immediate family. "I think you can tell whether [a man] gets it or not if the women around him are strong."

Biden then led off a round of personal stories about the types of struggles he had faced in his adult life, and the stories he hears on a regular basis from voters across the country.

"I live in my condo," Napolitano joked about Arizona's not having a governor's mansion, "which I think is the only gubernatorial condominium in the United States today."

She talked about her role on the Democratic platform committee, working on issues like equal gender pay, a path toward universal health care, a commitment to get out of Iraq and motions to prevent home foreclosures.

"This election is about big differences that make a big difference in the quality of our lives," she said, "and that is why we have got to go out and fight for it and win it."

Gregoire began by accentuating the difference between Washington the state and Washington the District of Columbia, something that Evergreen Staters who have spent much time around East Coasters have to do.

"Just so we distinguish it from Washington DC, I will repeat it is the great state of Washington," Gregoire said playfully.

She talked about the values of the Obama family that she has come to learn and appreciate, and said it was time for those values to become "a part of the very fabric of America." But Gregoire's story focused on her childhood growing up with a single mother in Auburn who imprinted upon her the importance of education, which led her to become the first member of her family to graduate from college.

"She had love," Gregoire said of her mother who may have lacked money, "love that every single day I knew I could take to the bank."

From there Gregoire touched on many of the issues that define her campaign for re-election, early education and children's health care, suggesting that government spent more money on early education, it would not have to spend it on prisons. The same investment calculations, she said, could be made on health care.

"It is not just the morally responsible thing to do," Gregoire said. "It is the fiscally responsible thing to do."

Obama and Biden concluded on the same lines. They both brought up the ideas of investing in a future, with Biden focusing on the values represented in someone's budget and the heavy impact of the next president's Supreme Court selections. It was Obama, though, who really summed up the theme of the discussion, which was helping those who one of the participants described as being "in the gap" of not having enough money to really make it, but having too much to qualify for government programs.

"This young woman who is doing everything that is asked of her cannot afford another four years of hearing, ‘maybe, maybe not,'" Obama asserted. "She is ready and willing to be all that she can be, but just with a little help."