Obama to go big on detail in convention speech

The Greek columns may be banished and the “hope” and “change” signs gone, but US president Barack Obama’s pitch to voters at the Democratic National Convention this week echoes his 2008 speech, when he cast himself as a visionary leader in touch with the nation’s priorities.

Dogged by a sluggish economy and in a tight race with Republican rival Mitt Romney, Obama will use his time in the spotlight on Thursday to focus on education, tax cuts for those making less than $250,000 (€198,000), energy, immigration, and social issues, his advisers indicated.

By talking in more specific terms than Romney did last week, Obama’s team hopes to draw a contrast between the two men.

Obama’s team believes that Romney missed a big chance during the Republican convention to lay out a blueprint for fixing the US economy.

Romney called for fewer government regulations and lower taxes, but offered few details in a speech that emphasised his biography and amounted to a rebuttal of months of attacks from Obama’s team. The Obama campaign has cast the former private equity executive as an aloof tycoon out of touch with middle-class America.

Unlike the former Massachusetts governor, Obama needs no introduction to the American public, his campaign advisers say.

So as Romney’s campaign casts Obama as a failure in improving the economy, the president — trying to become the first since World War II to be re-elected with an unemployment rate above 8% — will argue that he has better ideas to help the country recover from the recession that began under Republican president George W Bush.

“This Thursday night, I will offer you what I believe is a better path forward — a path that grows this economy, creates more good jobs, strengthens the middle class,” Obama said in a preview of his remarks.

“The good news is you get to choose which path we take. We can take their path or we can take the path that I’m going to present.”

Obama’s team aims to fill the nearly 74,000-seat Bank of America stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the president will deliver his speech, and produce a populist feel that contrasts with Romney’s convention.

With tens of thousands in the stadium and millions watching on television, the prime time speech will be Obama’s most prominent opportunity to date to make his case for re-election.

Advisers said Obama will use the opportunity to highlight elements from his campaign speeches: His support of a bailout that saved the US auto industry; ending the war in Iraq; presiding over the death of Osama bin Laden; and championing women’s rights.

“Most Americans aren’t hearing his stump speech except in little bits and pieces,” said Jeff Shesol, a former speechwriter for Bill Clinton who worked on convention speeches in 2000, 2004, and 2008.

“He absolutely shouldn’t come up with a brand new message, a brand new take on who he is, where he comes from, and what he plans to do in the next term,” Shesol said.

In Charlotte, Obama will have some significant help in making his case.

His popular wife Michelle, former president Bill Clinton, and others will offer testimonials with forward-looking themes.

David Axelrod, Obama’s chief campaign strategist, said Romney’s speech was filled with “snarky lines” and “gauzy reminiscences of the past”.