CHARLOTTE — Gone is the huge stadium crowd that flocked to hear him speak in an almost messianic setting four years ago in Denver. Gone also are the replica Greek columns that stood as a symbol of his grand ambition when Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for president in 2008.
The challenge for President Obama, when he takes the stage Thursday night at Time Warner Cable Arena to accept the call for a second term, is not whether he can replicate the magic of that moment. Rather, it will be to inspire another sort of belief in the public, one that requires, perhaps, less blind faith in the man, and a more realistic trust of his leadership.
In excerpts of his prepared speech released by the campaign, Obama intends to appeal for more time to fix the nation’s problem.
“I won’t pretend the path I’m offering is quick or easy. I never have. You didn’t elect me to tell you what you wanted to hear,” the president will say, according to the text of the remarks. “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.”
Yet he also will offer a hopeful note: “But know this, America: Our problems can be solved. Our challenges can be met. The path we offer may be harder, but it leads to a better place.”
Obama promised this week to use his prime-time convention address to lay out “a better path forward” for a nation still mired in a protracted economic slump, with 23 million Americans either out of work or stuck in part-time jobs. Unemployment stands at 8.3 percent. It is a nation, battered by what Obama has called the “worst economic slump since the Great Depression, that has shown signs of fatigue, not just of its president, but of Washington as a whole, stuck in its partisan gridlock and showing few signs of the “change” Obama so hopefully promised.
Speaking at a rally in Norfolk on Tuesday, Obama told 11,600 supporters that his Republican rivals were counting on the electorate losing faith. But he implored them to maintain their faith, not just in him but in themselves.
“I’m counting on something different,” the president said “Those who oppose change, those who benefit from an unjust status quo, they’re always betting on the complacency and cynicism of the American people. But throughout America’s history, they’ve always lost that bet, and I think they’re going to lose that bet this time, too.”
Yet Obama cannot this time rely so heavily on the power of his oratory. In well-received speeches Tuesday and Wednesday, first lady Michelle Obama and former president Bill Clinton set the stage for Obama by talking, respectively, about Obama the man and Obama the president. Vice President Biden, whom the president’s campaign has employed to communicate at a more prosaic level with ordinary Americans, is scheduled to speak before Obama on Thursday, along with his wife Jill Biden, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), actress Eva Longoria and Caroline Kennedy. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who introduced Obama four years ago, will do so again.
The challenge for President Obama, when he takes the stage Thursday night at Time Warner Cable Arena to accept the call for a second term, is not whether he can replicate the magic of that moment. Rather, it will be to inspire another sort of belief in the public, one that requires, perhaps, less blind faith in the man, and a more realistic trust of his leadership.
In excerpts of his prepared speech released by the campaign, Obama intends to appeal for more time to fix the nation’s problem.
“I won’t pretend the path I’m offering is quick or easy. I never have. You didn’t elect me to tell you what you wanted to hear,” the president will say, according to the text of the remarks. “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.”
Yet he also will offer a hopeful note: “But know this, America: Our problems can be solved. Our challenges can be met. The path we offer may be harder, but it leads to a better place.”
Obama promised this week to use his prime-time convention address to lay out “a better path forward” for a nation still mired in a protracted economic slump, with 23 million Americans either out of work or stuck in part-time jobs. Unemployment stands at 8.3 percent. It is a nation, battered by what Obama has called the “worst economic slump since the Great Depression, that has shown signs of fatigue, not just of its president, but of Washington as a whole, stuck in its partisan gridlock and showing few signs of the “change” Obama so hopefully promised.
Speaking at a rally in Norfolk on Tuesday, Obama told 11,600 supporters that his Republican rivals were counting on the electorate losing faith. But he implored them to maintain their faith, not just in him but in themselves.
“I’m counting on something different,” the president said “Those who oppose change, those who benefit from an unjust status quo, they’re always betting on the complacency and cynicism of the American people. But throughout America’s history, they’ve always lost that bet, and I think they’re going to lose that bet this time, too.”
Yet Obama cannot this time rely so heavily on the power of his oratory. In well-received speeches Tuesday and Wednesday, first lady Michelle Obama and former president Bill Clinton set the stage for Obama by talking, respectively, about Obama the man and Obama the president. Vice President Biden, whom the president’s campaign has employed to communicate at a more prosaic level with ordinary Americans, is scheduled to speak before Obama on Thursday, along with his wife Jill Biden, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), actress Eva Longoria and Caroline Kennedy. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who introduced Obama four years ago, will do so again.