To warm up the crowd, out trotted Sen. Mark Warner. He was then followed by former Gov. Tim Kaine.
And then to introduce President Obama, Ricki Thompson.
Who is she?
To introduce the most powerful man in the world, the president picked one of our neighbors. She answered an email about military spouses and hoped maybe that would get her in to see the president. Thompson then found out she'd introduce him. When she told her friends, they thought she was kidding.
“The president? That's what I got from a lot of people like I was going to introduce the president of the garden club or something."
But as the moment approached, she was nervous.
“After the Senator spoke, I didn't want to go up there and kill the energy. I was terrified I would give my speech to crickets.
She spoke about how the President's tax cuts helped her stay home more with her twin girls and eased the worry when her husband deployed. That’s what the president wanted the crowd to hear. He wanted them to know that military families like Ricki`s are getting the help that they need when their loved ones are fighting on their behalf.
She's a former sailor now married to an Oceana pilot. The fact that they picked her, not a politician, not a celebrity, just a regular middle-class mom of twin girls, meant the world to her.
“I'm not here because my parents know a senator or because my aunt is best friends with someone, I am here because they were looking for real people, and they picked one.”
