On the first night of the Democratic National Convention, First Lady Michelle Obama delivered a personal speech about her relationship with the president and the values that guide him. She said that in President Obama's first term, he did not always do what was easy but cared about doing what was right. NY1's Grace Rauh filed the following report.

First Lady Michelle Obama is in a unique position to talk about the president. She knows the personal side of him that the public does not often see.

"I have seen firsthand that being president doesn't change who you are," she said in her speech at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night. "It reveals who you are."

She said Tuesday that her husband is the same person she fell in love with years ago, a family man who cares for his daughters. She said President Obama is touched by letters sent to the White House from Americans struggling to pay their bills or fighting a health insurance company over coverage.

"I see the concern in his eyes and I hear the determination in his voice as he tells me, 'You won't believe what these folks are going through, Michelle,'" she said. "It's not right. We've got to keep working to fix this."

The first lady is quite popular. And the decision to have her headline the first night of the Democratic National Convention is a sign of just how important she is to her husband's re-election fight.

Michelle Obama took some subtle jabs at Mitt Romney, the president's Republican rival, including one line in her speech where she said "Helping others means more than just getting ahead yourself."

But she did not go after the other side directly. Instead, she kept the speech focused on her own family and the values she and the president were brought up with.

"We learned about gratitude and humility, that so many people had a hand in our success," she said.

She also defended the president's decision to fight for health care reform in his first term.

"He didn't care whether it was the easy thing to do politically," she said. "That's not how he was raised. He cared that it was the right thing to do."

The first lady said the president reminds her that they are playing a long game and that change is hard and slow and never happens all at once.