CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Better off than four years ago? Even some of President Barack Obama's biggest fans have to work to get to "yes," but they expect him to make the case more forcefully.
"He has got to continue to be clearer on what has happened for the good," said retired Vermont school superintendent Charles Sweetman, one of the thousands of delegates to the Democratic National Convention this week. The nation's climb out of recession, he added, "is a little slower than we wanted, but boy, the train is moving and don't get us off the track."
The question left some Obama campaign surrogates flustered this past weekend. Ask the delegates and you get a list of Obama successes: He ordered the mission that killed Osama bin Laden. His health care overhaul insured millions more Americans. Pell grants, which help pay for college tuition for 9 million students, are on the rise. The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is law.
But the realities of a slow-moving economic recovery temper their enthusiasm: The unemployment rate hovers at 8.3 percent, compared to 6.1 percent four years ago. Millions of Americans are out of work and home values are down. New job numbers come out Friday.
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