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Obama's Big Speech

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As the President steps up to make his case for a second term, we’re in the hall asking: What does the country need to hear?

Delegates wave the signs during the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2012. (AP)
Delegates wave the signs during the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2012. (AP)

And tonight, it is President Barack Obama’s turn to stand and deliver.  We have heard from Bill Clinton and Sandra Fluke.  From Michelle Obama and Julian Castro.  From Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan and Chris Christie.  But it is President Obama who’s been man on the watch in a very tough time.

When he spoke to this convention crowd four years ago, the economy had not crashed.  Tonight, it is far from full recovery.  Bill Clinton says no president could turn it around in four years.  What will, what should Obama say?

This hour, On Point: we’re in Charlotte as the president prepares to make his case.
-Tom Ashbrook

Guests

James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic.

Major Garrett, White House correspondent for National Journal.

From Tom's Reading List

Washington Post "Bill Clinton is typically described as the empathetic, feel-your-pain guy. But his greatest political skill may be as a formulator of arguments — the explainer in chief."

Boston Globe "Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday will be about promise — the kind he'll say he has kept, and the kind of feeling he wants to stir once more. He will take people back to the start of his presidency to make a case why their lives are better, but his bigger imperative is to sell himself as better for middle-class America than Republican Mitt Romney."

This program aired on September 6, 2012.

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