President Obama understands that our economy is not the best it has been in the past or the best it could be. A series of events in America and across the world has caused unfortunate circumstances. But President Obama urges Americans to follow the “harder” and “longer” path he has mapped out to restore the company’s economy and instill that American sense of hope and opportunity. Click below to read more.

Jason J.

“America, I never said this journey would be easy, and I won’t promise that now,” he told his party’s convention. “Yes, our path is harder, but it leads to a better place. Yes, our road is longer, but we travel it together.”

Obama, 51, was careful to strike a delicate balance, infusing voters with hope while remaining realistic about the challenges ahead, and sensitive to those Americans still batted by a lengthy recession and slow recovery.

His tone was hopeful and forward looking, a reflection of the reality of his record: unemployment remains stubbornly above 8 percent and 67 percent of Americans think the country is “on the wrong track.”

Obama’s speech comes four years after he promised the nation an administration of hope and change, and he suggested that his promise has been battered but not beaten.

“That hope has been tested by the cost of war, by one of the worst economic crises in history, and by political gridlock,” he said.

At another point he said, “I recognize that times have changed since I first spoke to this convention. The times have changed, and so have I.”

The president looked forward to what his second administration will look like, laying out a series of goals for the manufacturing, energy, education, national security sectors, and for the deficit.

He promised to create a million new manufacturing jobs in the next four years and 600,000 new jobs in the natural gas sector by the end of the decade.

He also promised to cut in half the growth of college tuition costs over the next 10 years and invest in the economy money no longer being spent to execute the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“On every issue, the choice you face won’t be just between two candidates or two parties,” he said. “It will be a choice between two different paths for America.

Obama positioned himself as the experienced candidate, tested by war and proven in foreign policy.

“In a world of new threats and new challenges, you can choose leadership that has been tested and proven,” he said. ” Four years ago, I promised to end the war in Iraq. We did. I promised to refocus on the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11. We have… Al-Qaeda is on the path to defeat, and Osama bin Laden is dead,” he said to cheers.

Obama said Americans had a choice on the economy. “We can give more tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, or we can start rewarding companies that open new plants and train new workers and create new jobs here, in the United States of America,” he said.

ABC News