CHARLOTTE, N.C. — President Obama charted a course for a brighter American future during a fervid and resolute Democratic National Convention speech Thursday, exhorting voters to let him lead the way.
Obama, officially accepting his party’s nomination for President, urged patience and pledged to bring the nation out of a crippling recession, soberly warning that difficult times still lay ahead.
“I won’t pretend the path I’m offering is quick and easy. I never have,” he said. “You didn’t elect me to tell you what you wanted to hear — you elected me to tell you the truth.
“And the truth is, it will take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that have built up over decades.”
Obama framed voters’ decision between Republican Mitt Romney and himself as “the clearest choice of any time in a generation,” and expressed concern over the country’s future if the GOP’s conservative movement triumphed in November.
“Over the next few years, big decisions will be made in Washington,” Obama said. “Decisions that will have a huge impact on our lives and our children’s lives for decades to come. It will be a choice between two fundamentally different visions for the future.”
Obama largely let others — like Bill Clinton and his wife, Michelle — extol during DNC speeches the accomplishments of his first term, including the auto industry bailout, the passage of national health care reform and the death of terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden.
Instead, he laid out his plans for the next four years, which included promises of 1 million new manufacturing jobs by 2017 and the doubling of exports by 2014.
He also pledged to cut oil imports in half by 2020 and slash $4 trillion from the deficit over the next decade.
“Our problems can be solved. Our challenges can met,” Obama said before delivering a subtle yet stinging rebuke to the GOP.
“The path we offer may be harder but it leads to a better place,” he told the full house at the Time Warner Arena. “That’s what we can do in the next four years and that’s why I’m running for a second term as President of the United States.”
Obama, repeatedly interrupted by chants of “four more years!” was preceded on the stage by Vice President Biden, who delivered an impassioned address that accented Obama’s leadership and indicted the GOP ticket for not being up to the challenge.
“I found it interesting that last week, when Gov. Romney said that, as President, he’d take a jobs tour,” said Biden, who derided “the Bain way” of doing business. “Well, with his support for outsourcing, it’s going to have to be a foreign trip.”
“In the face of the deepest economic crisis in our lifetimes, this nation proved itself,” the vice president roared. “We’re as worthy as any generation that has gone before us. It’s never a good bet to bet against the American people.”
Biden teared up earlier in the night when his son, Beau, delivered the speech that nominated him for vice president.
The night’s other emotional moment came when Gabby Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman nearly killed in a madman’s shooting rampage, led the arena in the Pledge of Allegiance. Giffords, who walked haltingly to the microphone as the crowd chanted “Gabby,” spoke in a clear, strong voice and blew kisses to the audience when she finished.
A more forceful note was struck by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who touted Obama’s foreign policy record.
“President Obama has kept his promises,” Kerry declared. “Ask Osama Bin Laden if he is better off now than he was four years ago.”
The night, which also featured speeches by former GOP Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, Caroline Kennedy and actresses Scarlett Johansson and Eva Longoria, was originally scheduled to be held in the outdoor 74,000-seat Bank of America Stadium but was moved inside to the smaller arena due to dire weather forecasts.
Thunderstorms rolled through Charlotte Thursday afternoon, though Republicans insist the switch was made because Democrats allegedly could not fill the cavernous stadium.
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