Michelle Obama and Jill Biden, the spouses of the Democratic presidential ticket, swung back through Battleground Virginia on Wednesday, talking economics and get-out-the vote efforts in Charlottesville and Richmond.

Hundreds packed UVa.'s Newcomb Hall Plaza for the massive get-out-the-vote rally Wednesday evening.

"I think this is really an historic moment," said Krystal Commons. "I think it's a beautiful ting to have the first black presidential nominee running and his wife at the University of Virginia."

The message for the mostly female crowd focused on economics, a hot topic in a week that has seen unprecedented government involvement in the market.

"When women are paid unfairly, who pays the price?" asked Michelle Obama. "Their kids, their families pay the price and we won't stop fighting until women are paid fairly for the work that they do."

The crowds appeared to be enthusiastic about the message.

"I'm very excited to be here and to witness history," said one woman in the crowd.

"She's a great speaker, and she speaks for a lot of us," added another rally-goer. " You know, times are hard and change is necessary."

Enthusiastic Obama-Biden supporters arrived early for the rally.

"I'm really pumped up really excited. I just feel really inspired and excited," said Neg Mahmoodzadegan, a Virginia voter.

"It's great to see women of power speaking," added Whitney Hewlett, of Virginia, "and she's such a great speaker, so I'm really excited to see her."

"She's so smart and yet she's so down to earth, and I think that is very approachable for women," said Virginia voter Phoebe Frosh. "Women really identify with her."

Earlier, in Richmond, Michelle Obama and about 170 others gathered to discuss the economy and what Obama's husband, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama (web|news|bio), would do to make it better for women.

"Americans are looking for policies that help them in their everyday lives -- policies that benefit all of us," Michelle Obama said. "They're looking for a Washington that doesn't stand in their way."

One of the round table's participants was a retired Maryland state employee who struggles to pay her bills after her husband's death. Another used to live paycheck-to-paycheck and says those were the good days. The third tries to balance her time between her job, her family and caring for her mother with Alzheimer's.

It was the first in a series of round-table discussions during the primary season. Wednesday's forum in Richmond came in a week in which financial giants fell and the stock market suffered its worst day since the September 2001 terrorist attacks.

The candidates' wives will make their next stops in North Carolina.