President Barack Obama accepted his party’s nomination for President — setting up the official launching of an election campaign pitting him against Republican Mitt Romney that Obama says presents America with the clearest choice in a generation. Here’s how CBS News’ report frames it:
President Obama formally accepted the Democratic party’s presidential nomination on Thursday night, calling the 2012 election “the clearest choice of any time in a generation.”
“On every issue, the choice you face won’t be just between two candidates or two parties,” the president said on the final night of the Democratic National Convention, in front of a crowd of about 20,000 at the Time Warner Cable Arena. “It will be a choice between two different paths for America. A choice between two fundamentally different visions for the future.”
The president appealed to his supporters to keep up faith they showed during the 2008 campaign, even as his promises of “hope” and “change” are tested.
“Know this, America: Our problems can be solved. Our challenges can be met,” he said. “The path we offer may be harder, but it leads to a better place. And I’m asking you to choose that future. I’m asking you to rally around a set of goals for your country – goals in manufacturing, energy, education, national security, and the deficit; a real, achievable plan that will lead to new jobs, more opportunity, and rebuild this economy on a stronger foundation.”
Mr. Obama noted that in the next four years, Washington would be forced to make critical decisions on all of those issues. He warned that his Republican rival Mitt Romney would revive stale policies that failed in the past and will surely fail again. And while acknowledging that voters may be second-guessing their faith in his leadership, Mr. Obama said his own policies have shown a clear path to progress.
The president made some of the sharpest contrasts between his policies and Romney’s proposals on the subject of foreign policy.
Was this a pro forma speech? One that primarily was aimed at exciting his party’s base? Or was it a speech that tried to successfully appeal to independent, moderate and other swing voters. And, if so, did it work? Here’s the video of the full speech so you can decide for yourself:
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Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.