“If you give up on the idea that your voice can make a difference, then other voices will fill the void: lobbyists and special interests; the people with the $10 million checks who are trying to buy this election.
“Washington politicians who want to decide who you can marry, or control health care choices that women should make for themselves.”
Obama also posed as a teller of hard truths, arguing that recovery was bound to be hard from the worst recession in decades.
“You didn’t elect me to tell you what you wanted to hear. You elected me to tell you the truth,” Obama said.
“And the truth is, it will take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that have built up over decades.
“It will require common effort, shared responsibility, and the kind of bold, persistent experimentation that Franklin Roosevelt pursued during the only crisis worse than this one.”
Democrat Roosevelt took power in 1933, amid a banking crisis that threatened American capitalism itself, and steered the country to recovery and through the flames of World War II.
Obama took the convention stage knowing that history suggests a sickly economy often dooms an incumbent president seeking re-election.
“On every issue, the choice you face won’t be just between two candidates or two parties,” Obama said.
“It will be a choice between two different paths for America.”
The prime-time address came with Obama waging a too-close-to-call race with Romney, who argues that 8.3 percent unemployment and sluggish growth prove the president is out of ideas and should be sent home to Chicago after one term.
Romney, who made his own convention pitch to voters a week ago, earlier called on Obama to issue a report card to Americans on “forgotten promises and forgotten people.”
“Over the last four years, the president has said that he was going to create jobs for the American people and that hasn’t happened.
“He said he would cut the deficit in half and that hasn’t happened. He said that incomes would rise and instead incomes have gone down.
“This is a time not for him not to start restating new promises, but to report on the promises he made. I think he wants a promises reset.”
(Video: Courtesy – Obama Campaign)
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