CHARLOTTE, N.C. — His re-election in doubt, President Barack Obama conceded only halting progress Thursday night toward fixing the nation’s stubborn economic woes, but vowed in a Democratic National Convention finale, “Our problems can be solved, our challenges can be met.”
“Yes, our path is harder — but it leads to a better place,” he declared in a prime-time speech to convention delegates and the nation that blended resolve about the tests ahead with stinging criticism of Republican rival Mitt Romney’s proposals to repair the economy.
Widely seen as reserved, even aloof, Obama acknowledged “my own failings” as he asked for a second term, four years after taking office as the nation’s first black president.
“Four more years,” delegates chanted over and over as the 51-year-old Obama stepped to the podium, noticeably grayer than he was as a history-making candidate for the White House in 2008.
First Lady Michelle Obama and the couple’s daughters, Michelle and Sasha, joined the president on stage in the moments after the speech, followed by other family members and Vice President Joe Biden and his wife. Strains of “Only in America” filled the hall as confetti filled the air.
Obama’s speech was the final act of a pair of highly scripted national political conventions in as many weeks, and the opening salvo of a two-month drive toward Election Day that pits Obama against Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts. The contest is ever tighter for the White House in a dreary season of economic struggle for millions.