Michelle Obama courts N.C. military famlies

JACKSONVILLE -- Michelle Obama dove deep into eastern North Carolina and the home of Camp Lejeune on Tuesday to persuade a crowd that her husband offered the best future for the military and their families.

"When your loved ones are far away, they shouldn't have to worry about whether they'll get jobs when they get back," the wife of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama told the gathering in Jacksonville.

"They shouldn't have to worry about whether they are going to have homes that are going to be foreclosed. ...There's only one candidate in this race who understands that, and that one candidate is Barack Obama!"

That Obama and Sarah Palin, the GOP vice presidential nominee, were in North Carolina on the same day is an indication of how important North Carolina has become in this election. Recent polls indicate the race in North Carolina is even.

Speaking to a crowd the police estimated at 1,500, Michelle Obama said her husband and Republican candidate John McCain offered "two different visions of the lives servicemen and women should return to."

Obama is campaigning on improving Veterans Administration medical care, improving mental health treatment for veterans, job protection for military spouses who need time away from work to prepare their families for deployment, and making education benefits under the G.I. Bill transferable to husbands, wives or children of military personnel.

Many in the crowd wore Obama buttons or shirt. While waiting for Michelle Obama, they burst seemingly into a spontaneous chants, including "O-O-O-Obama."

With the election just a month away, Obama and other speakers urged the crowd to register, volunteer for the campaign and vote early.

Obama's speech emphasized the interests of military members, pointing to the experience of her husband's grandparents. His grandfather served in the military and his grandmother worked on an assembly line during World War II, she said. After the war, his grandfather benefited from the GI bill, enabling him to go to college and helping him obtain a loan for a home.

Barack Obama, she said, "is determined to lead America to make the same commitment to military families today so that other families have the same support he had."