THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama told Americans on Thursday night that he understood their “hope has been tested”, but appealed for four more years in the White House to stop Mitt Romney from wrecking their fragile economic recovery.
In an understated speech to the Democratic Party convention in North Carolina, the President told voters that amid their ongoing economic struggle, they must choose between “two fundamentally different visions for the future”.
Styling himself as the heir to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he said that while “ours is a fight to restore the values that built the largest middle class and the strongest economy the world has ever known,” his Republican challenger would reheat the deregulation and tax cuts for high-earners that had “got us into this mess”.
Boasting that thanks to his leadership, “Osama bin Laden is dead”, he attacked Mr Romney for showing his inexperience in foreign affairs by questioning London's preparedness to host the Olympic Games during a visit in July. “You might not be ready for diplomacy with Beijing if you can[‘]t visit the Olympics without insulting our closest ally,” said Mr Obama.
However, he returned repeatedly to the differences between their economic philosophies, and to implicit contrasts between his own humble upbringing and Mr Romney's childhood as the son of millionaires in Michigan, which he suggested left him best-placed to understand voters' economic woe.
Rejecting a central Republican claim that he did not appreciate entrepreneurs and business-owners, Mr Obama said: “We also believe in something called citizenship … the idea that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another, and to future generations”. » | Jon Swaine, Charlotte | Friday, September 07, 2012
