Obama Presses Plan for US Resurgence

Obama Presses Plan for U.S. Resurgence

Goals Are Scaled Back From Sweeping Proposals in 2008

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By CAROL E. LEE and LAURA MECKLER

REUTERS

President Barack Obama hugs his wife, first lady Michelle Obama.

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—President Barack Obama portrayed himself as a stout defender of the middle class and a leader with a plan to create jobs across the U.S. economy in a speech Thursday accepting the Democratic nomination for re-election.
The president hoped to offer voters more specifics than his Republican foe, laying out a set of goals for a second term designed to demonstrate he has started rebuilding a ravaged economy and has a strategy for going further.
The goals, most of which echo those previously set by Mr. Obama, provided a message aimed to ease the economic anxieties of Americans during the last stretch of the campaign.

President Barack Obama addresses the Democratic National Convention and tells the audience they are the reason positive change has happened in America. Photo: Associated Press.

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"I'm asking you to rally around a set of goals for your country," Mr. Obama said. He cited ambitions to create manufacturing jobs, slow the growth of college tuition and bolster trade. He called them "real, achievable plans that will lead to new jobs, more opportunity, and rebuild this economy on a stronger foundation."
"That's what we can do in the next four years," he said.
The president's prime-time address capped a three-day convention that focused on the economic struggles of the middle class. Democrats used the convention to argue that Mr. Obama had put the country on a path to recovery and deserved more time.

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People run for cover from the pouring rain during the final day of the Democratic National Convention.

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President Obama, pledging to expand jobs and lift the middle class, accepted his party's nomination for re-election

"America has turned the corner," Vice President Joe Biden said, taking the stage before Mr. Obama. He added: "The work of recovery is not yet complete, but we are on our way."
Mr. Obama's goals reflected a shrunken vision compared with the sweeping plans of his 2008 speech accepting his party's presidential nomination, which had included "affordable, accessible health care for every single American," immigration reform and "energy independence."
Mr. Obama has signed a major health-care law but hasn't moved any immigration legislation through Congress. The crux of his energy agenda, a cap-and- trade plan, stalled in Congress.
The president said he wanted to double exports by 2014, a goal he has promoted since early 2010.
The U.S. is on track to meet that goal, given a strong rebound in global trade since the recession ended in 2009. U.S. exports in June—the latest month available—reached the highest level on record, partly buoyed by a relatively weak U.S. dollar.

Photos: Democratic National Convention

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Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts toured the stage Wednesday afternoon.

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• Full Text: Biden's Speech
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Mr. Obama's deficit-reduction goal—more than $4 trillion over the next decade—mirrors a target he announced in a plan last year. The pledge is an effort to demonstrate a commitment to fiscal responsibility as Republicans press attacks over the spiraling national debt. The president also repeated his call for raising taxes on the wealthy.
Mr. Obama called for creating one million manufacturing jobs by 2016, an achievement that would largely be an extension of the surge in factory jobs over the past two years.
The number of manufacturing jobs, 12 million in July, has returned to the levels of spring 2009. A continuation of the trend would counteract a long-term decline in U.S. manufacturing.
But even creating one million such jobs wouldn't offset a decade's worth of losses. Manufacturing employment last stood at 13 million in November 2008.
On energy, Mr. Obama called for cutting oil imports in half by 2020. He also set a goal of cutting the growth of college tuition in half, to recruit 100,000 math and science teachers and train two million workers at community colleges.

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Kevin Hassett, an adviser to the Romney campaign and director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, said Mr. Obama was setting goals the economy was already on track to achieve.

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"These are things that would likely happen if no policies changed," Mr. Hassett said.
The criticism echoed that of Democrats, who said Mitt Romney's goal of 12 million new jobs reflected a trend now under way.
Mr. Obama, who was elected with high expectations, sought to temper them Thursday, as he asked for voters to give him more time in the White House.
"I won't pretend the path I'm offering is quick or easy," Mr. Obama said.
"The truth is, it will take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that have built up over decades."
Many voters believe Mr. Romney, a former businessman, is better suited to improve the U.S. economy. Mr. Romney said Thursday he expected Mr. Obama to offer empty promises and didn't plan to watch the speech. "I saw the promises last time," Mr. Romney said during a campaign stop in Concord, N.H.
Democrats at the convention this week tried to cast the election as a choice between Mr. Romney—portrayed as a wealthy businessman who would give more financial benefits to the rich—and an incumbent president committed to fighting for the middle class. Mr. Obama said that where prior generations saw hard work pay off, he "saw that basic bargain slipping away."
Mr. Obama paired his call for higher taxes on the wealthy and for spending on social programs with a caution that he did not see the government as the solution to all problems.
"We don't think government can solve all our problems. But we don't think that government is the source of all our problems," he said, "any more than are welfare recipients, or corporations, or unions, or immigrants, or gays, or any other group we're told to blame for our troubles."

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As Mr. Biden accepted the party's vice presidential nomination, he vouched for Mr. Obama as a leader and criticized Mr. Romney's business background.
"Gov. Romney believes in this global economy, it doesn't matter much where American companies invest and put their money or where they create jobs," Mr. Biden said. "The most fascinating thing I found last week was when Governor Romney said that as president, he would take a jobs tour.
"Well, with all his support for outsourcing—it's going to have to be a foreign trip."
Mr. Obama leveled some sharp attacks against Mr. Romney on foreign policy issues.
"After all, you don't call Russia our number one enemy—and not al Qaeda…unless you're still stuck in a Cold War mind warp," Mr. Obama said, referring to a comment Mr. Romney made earlier this year.
He acknowledged the hope he tried to rally the nation around four years ago "has been tested."
"I recognize that times have changed since I first spoke to this convention," he said. "Times have changed, and so have I."
—Janet Hook, Sara Murray and Sudeep Reddy contributed to this article. Write to Carol E. Lee at carol.lee@wsj.com and Laura Meckler at laura.meckler@wsj.com

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Obama Presses Plan for US Resurgence

What is strange to me is that the Democrats now the pragmatists and the Republicans are now lost like College professors in theory and ideology. However, pragmatists built this country. Eisenhower was a General, a President and a pragmatist. He built hiways and superhiways across America. By doing this incredible amounts were saved on transporting goods and services that have continued until now. Reagan was a pragmatist by starting Star Wars it caused the Soviet Union to militarily bankrupt itself trying to keep up with our technology. The Soviet Union's bankruptcy caused the Russian Democracy to form. The next real Pragmatist in this realm was Clinton who was so like the Republicans in his pragmatism that Bush one and two basically adopted him and work with him to this day. Inspired by Kennedy and Clinton as well as Reagan, Obama is the next pragmatic President in this mold of getting things done when times are tough and similar in some ways to the Great Depression now worldwide. Romney has demonstrated he knows absolutely nothing about Foreign policy and might be a danger to the world right now because of his inexperience if he were elected president. 

And last of all people are very scared because of the world recession and potential depression that might come even here. Under circumstances like this Presidents tend to get re-elected when people are scared just like Bush 2 got re-elected because people were scared then too.