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Ex-LI woman thrust into DNC spotlight

BY BART JONES | bart.jones@newsday.com

August 31, 2008

Former Long Island resident Janet Lynn Monaco said she simply pretended the more than 75,000 people at Denver's Invesco Field - and the millions more watching on nationwide TV - weren't there Thursday night when she delivered a short talk just before Barack Obama took the stage.

Monaco said it was the only way she could get through her delivery, one of several that "ordinary Americans" gave as a lead-in to Obama's acceptance speech.

"I was nervous," said Monaco, 51, a former resident of Brentwood and Lindenhurst who moved to Melbourne, Fla., in 1994. But Obama's organizers "made it easy," in part by providing a Teleprompter.

Monaco owns a pet store in Florida and also works a part-time job but said in her speech that she can't afford health insurance even though she is diabetic. She spoke at the convention of her belief that hardworking people can no longer attain the American dream.

She introduced Obama at a local event in Florida on Aug. 2, and his people liked her enough to invite her to Denver.

Backstage before her talk, she met everyone from Al Gore to Joe Biden to New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

Monaco, who is single and graduated from Brentwood High School, said she had been a Hillary Clinton supporter but now is fully behind Obama.

"He is magnificent," she said. "He is a phenomenon."

She said she became an instant celebrity after her convention appearance, with people stopping her on the streets to have their picture taken with her.

"I don't think the reality of it all has hit me," Monaco said by telephone yesterday from the airport in Denver as she prepared to fly home. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Now, she said, "I hope I get invited to his inauguration."