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Obama appeals for patience in convention speech
President says 'our challenges can be met'
President Barack Obama
Friday, September 7, 2012
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — His re-election in doubt, President Barack Obama conceded only halting progress Thursday night toward fixing the nation’s stubborn economic woes, but vowed in a Democratic National Convention finale, “Our problems can be solved, our challenges can be met.”
“Yes, our path is harder — but it leads to a better place,” he declared in a prime-time speech to convention delegates and the nation that blended resolve about the challenges ahead with stinging criticism of Republican rival Mitt Romney’s proposals to repair the economy.
He acknowledged “my own failings” as he asked for a second term, four years after taking office as the nation’s first black president.
“Four more years,” delegates chanted over and over as the 51-year-old Obama stepped to the podium, noticeably grayer than four years ago when he was a history-making candidate for the White House.
The president’s speech was the final act of a pair of highly scripted national political conventions in as many weeks, and the opening salvo of a two-month drive toward Election Day that pits Obama against Republican rival Romney. The contest is ever tighter for the White House in a dreary season of economic struggle for millions.
Vice President Joe Biden preceded Obama at the convention podium and proclaimed, “America has turned the corner” after experiencing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
Obama didn’t go that far in his own remarks, but he said firmly, “We are not going back, we are moving forward, America.”
With unemployment at 8.3 percent, the president said the task of recovering from the economic disaster of 2008 is exceeded in American history only by the challenge Franklin Delano Roosevelt faced when he took office in 1933.
“It will require common effort, shared responsibility and the kind of bold persistent experimentation” that FDR employed, Obama said.
In an appeal to independent voters who might be considering a vote for Romney, he added that those who carry on Roosevelt’s legacy “should remember that not every problem can be remedied with another government program or dictate from Washington.
He said, “The truth is, it will take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that have built up over the decades.”
In the run-up to Obama’s speech, delegates erupted in tumultuous cheers when former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, grievously wounded in a 2011 assassination attempt, walked onstage to lead the Pledge of Allegiance. The hall grew louder when she blew kisses to the crowd.
And louder still when huge video screens inside the hall showed the face of Osama bin Laden, the terrorist mastermind killed in a daring raid on his Pakistani hideout by U.S. special operations forces b(euro) ” on a mission approved by the current commander in chief.
The hall was filled to capacity long before Obama stepped to the podium, and officials shut off the entrances because of a fear of overcrowding for a speech that the campaign had originally slated for the 74,000-seat football stadium nearby. Aides said weather concerns prompted the move to the convention arena, capacity 15,000 or so.
Obama’s campaign said the president would ask the country to rally around a “real achievable plan that will create jobs, expand opportunity and ensure an economy built to last.”
He added, “The truth is it will take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that have built up over a decade.”
In convention parlance, both Obama and Biden were delivering acceptance speeches before delegates who nominated them for new terms in office.
But the political significance went far beyond that - the moment when the general election campaign begins in earnest even though Obama and Romney have been pointing toward a Nov. 6 showdown for months.
To the cheers of delegates, Obama retraced his steps to halt the economic slide, including the auto bailout that Romney opposed.
“After a decade of decline, this country created over a half million manufacturing jobs in the last two and a half years,” he said.
Turning to national security, he said he had promised to end the war in Iraq, and had done so.
“We’ve blunted the Taliban’s momentum in Afghanistan, and in 2014 our longest war will be over,” he said.
“A new tower rises above the New York skyline, al-Qaida is on the path to defeat and Osama bin Laden is dead,” he declared, one of the night’s repeated references to the special operations forces raid that resulted in the terrorist mastermind’s demise more than a year ago.
He lampooned Romney’s own economic proposals.
“Have a surplus? Try a tax cut. Deficit too high? Try another. Feel a cold coming on? Take two tax cuts, roll back some regulations and call us in the morning,” he said.
Mocking Romney for his overseas trip earlier this summer, Obama said, “You might not be ready for diplomacy with Beijing if you can’t visit the Olympics without insulting our closest ally.” That was a reference to a verbal gaffe the former Massachusetts governor committed while visiting London.
The hall was filled to capacity long before Obama stepped to the podium, and officials shut off the entrances because of a fear of overcrowding for a speech that the campaign had originally slated for the 74,000-seat football stadium nearby. Aides said weather concerns prompted the move to the convention arena, capacity 15,000 or so.
Obama’s campaign said the president would ask the country to rally around a “real achievable plan that will create jobs, expand opportunity and ensure an economy built to last.”
Biden told the convention in his own speech that he had watched as Obama “made one gutsy decision after another” to stop an economic free-fall after they took office in 2009.
Now, he said, “we’re on a mission to move this nation forward b(euro) ” from doubt and downturn to promise and prosperity. ... America has turned the corner.”
Delegates who packed into their convention hall were serenaded by singer James Taylor and rocked by R&B blues artist Mary J. Blige as they awaited Obama’s speech.
There was no end to the jabs aimed at Romney and the Republicans.
“Ask Osama bin Laden if he’s better off than four years ago,” said Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, who lost the 2004 election in a close contest with President George W. Bush. It was a mocking answer to the Republicans’ repeated question of whether Americans are better off than when Obama took office.
The campaign focus was shifting quickly b(euro) ” to politically sensitive monthly unemployment figures due out Friday morning and the first presidential debate on Oct. 3 in Denver. Wall Street hit a four-year high a few hours before Obama’s speech after the European Central Bank laid out a concrete plan to support the region’s struggling countries.
The economy is by far the dominant issue in the campaign, and the differences between Obama and his challenger could hardly be more pronounced.
Romney wants to extend all tax cuts that are due to expire on Dec. 31 with an additional 20 percent reduction in rates across the board, arguing that job growth would result. He also favors deep cuts in domestic programs ranging from education to parks, repeal of the health care legislation that Obama pushed through Congress and landmark changes in Medicare, the program that provides health care to seniors.
Obama wants to renew the tax cuts except on incomes higher than $250,000, saying that millionaires should contribute to an overall attack on federal deficits. He also criticizes the spending cuts Romney advocates, saying they would fall unfairly on the poor, lower-income college students and others. He argues that Republicans would “end Medicare as we know it” and saddle seniors with ever-rising costs.
After two weeks of back-to-back conventions, the impact on the race remained to be determined.
You’re not going to see big bounces in this election,” said David Plouffe, a senior White House adviser. “For the next 61 days, it’s going to remain tight as a tick.”
Romney wrapped up several days of debate rehearsals with close aides in Vermont and is expected to resume full-time campaigning in the next day or two.
In a brief stop to talk with veterans on Thursday, he defended his decision to omit mention of the war in Afghanistan when he delivered his acceptance speech last week at the Republican National Convention. He noted he had spoken to the American Legion only one day before.
Romney’s campaign released its first new television ad since the convention season began.
It shows Clinton sharply questioning Obama’s credibility on the Iraq War in 2008, saying “Give me a break, this whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I’ve ever seen.” Obama was running against Hillary Rodham Clinton at the time for the Democratic nomination.
It will likely be a week or more before the two campaigns can fully digest post-convention polls and adjust their strategies for the fall.
Based on the volume of campaign appearances to date and the hundreds of millions of dollars spent already on television advertising, the election appears likely to be decided in a small number of battleground states. The list includes New Hampshire, Virginia, Ohio, Colorado, Nevada and Iowa, as well as Florida and North Carolina, the states where first Republicans and then Democrats held their conventions. Those states hold 100 electoral votes among them, out of 270 needed to win the White House.
Money has become an ever-present concern for the Democrats, an irony given the overwhelming advantage Obama held over John McCain in the 2008 campaign.
This time, Romney is outpacing him, and independent groups seeking the Republican’s election are pouring tens of millions of dollars into television advertising, far exceeding what Obama’s supporters can afford.
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Associated Press writers Leo Buckle, Ben Feller, Ken Thomas, Matt Michaels and Jim Kuhnhenn in Charlotte, Calvin Woodward, Jennifer Agiesta, Jack Gillum and Josh Lederman in Washington, Kasie Hunt in Vermont and Thomas Beaumont and Steve Peoples in Iowa contributed to this report.
The Henry County School Board has received $446,280 in additional funds from the state.
At its meeting Thursday, the board approved the appropriation of the $446,280 and agreed to forward an appropriation request to the Henry County Board of Supervisors.
Board Chairman Kathy Rogers said after the meeting that the school division had anticipated receiving the money when Gov. Bob McDonnell’s budget was finalized.
The main changes in the governor’s budget were to add additional assistance with retirement, inflation and preschool costs, EpiPen grants and reduction in basic aid funding, school board documents show.
The county schools will use the additional funding to offset the increase in payroll taxes due to the required increase in wages to cover the mandatory Virginia Retirement System employee contributions and to provide a cushion for utility and fuel budgets to accommodate rising prices and uncertain winter weather, according to Rogers and board documents.
Also Thursday, school board members learned about a program known as Response to Intervention, or RTI.
The program helps educators detect a student’s weaknesses early and begin remedial work, said Rebecca Wells, the county schools’ director of special education, during a school board meeting held in the Fieldale-Collinsville Middle School auditorium.
The RTI model was introduced in 2005 and piloted in the county school system in 2006. Two years later, it was available in kindergarten and first grade at Irisburg Elementary, Ridgeway Elementary (now Drewry Mason Elementary), Collinsville Primary and Sanville Elementary.
At the schools, second grade was added in the 2008-2009 school year and third grade in 2009-2010, Wells said.
Mt. Olivet Elementary, Stanleytown Elementary and Rich Acres Elementary began the program in the 2011-2012 school year. This year, Campbell Court Elementary and Carver Elementary started using the RTI model, Wells said.
RTI is a new approach for determining which students should be classified as learning disabled. In 2010-2011, there were 91 initial referrals to special education; that number decreased to 69 in 2011-2012, according to Wells.
“We are seeing an impact,” she said.
The program allows students to set goals, and data is collected throughout the school year to track each student’s progress, said Deana Johnson, psychologist with the county schools.
RTI’s instruction has varying levels of intensity, depending on a student’s specific learning needs, Johnson said.
The program is operated through Aimsweb, which is a universal screening process, progress monitoring and data management system, according to Dave Parker, also a psychologist with the county schools.
Denna Ramsey, a second-grade teacher at Sanville Elementary, told the school board that one of her students went from reading 23 words per minute to 97 by the end of the school year as a result of the program, and another student went from reading 24 words per minute to 49 by year’s end.
Ruth Clay, first-grade teacher at Drewry Mason Elementary, said her students get excited to use Aimsweb each day. She constantly praises and rewards her students when they improve their fluency or reading level, which helps them to gain self-confidence and builds their self-esteem as well, she said.
With the program, the students and Clay are motivated to improve, and the program provides an easy way to record student progress, she said, adding that the program provides her with all the reading materials she needs to help students improve.
As a result, by the end of last year, all of Clay’s students were reading on grade level, she said.
In other business Thursday, the school board:
• Heard from William Wampler, New College Institute executive director, and Dr. Leanna Blevins, associate director at NCI, about the new Academy of Engineering and Technology which is being offered to county high school students through a partnership with Virginia State University and NCI.
Students gain college credit through engineering and mechanical courses taught by VSU professors at NCI, according to Wampler.
There are 33 students enrolled in the academy this semester, including eight county students, Blevins said.
“We are setting the standard” by providing such courses to high school students, Wampler told the board.
• Dorothy Carter, president of the Henry County Education Association, discussed her hopes for the school year and noted that the association will be starting a scholarship fund for county school students.
• Approved a consent agenda that included minutes from the Aug. 2 meeting and bills for payment.
• Approved a consent agenda that included spending $23,745 to renew the Video on Demand Delivery System, which gives teachers the ability to find a video clip to correlate with Virginia Standards of Learning and the division’s curriculum. The system helps avoid problems associated with copyright infringements and purchasing additional televisions and DVD players.
The school board approved the purchase of video on demand from Safari Montage in 2008 and there is a yearly renewal and upgrade fee for each school.
• Approved a consent agenda item that included all planned overnight field trips.
• Approved and appropriated an amendment to the 2012-13 Special Education Annual Plan/Part B Flow-Through Application and Section 619 Preschool Grant Application.
The amount awarded for the 2012-13 Special Education Title VI-B Annual Plan was decreased $26,627, from $2,034,724 to $2,008,100.
The application for Section 619 preschool funds is also incorporated into the annual plan. The amount awarded to the county schools for the 2012-13 school year is $82,647, a $120 decrease from funding for the 2011-12 school year. Adjustments for the decrease will be made in purchased services.
The Title VI-B Flow Through and Section 619 Preschool Budgets have been reviewed and were approved by the Henry County Schools Special Education Advisory Committee on May 3.
• Reviewed reports from Superintendent Jared Cotton. The reports included a slide show of all 551 kindergartners that he met during the first week of school. Also in the reports were an energy conservation report, approved fund raisers, receipts and expenditures through July 31 and a summary of major projects.
The roofing project at Mt. Olivet Elementary is substantially complete while roofing projects at Rich Acres Elementary and Stanleytown Elementary are about 50 percent complete. The Magna Vista High School ceiling and lighting renovations are about 60 percent complete. Paving of upper parking lots is complete and crews are waiting until the end of football season to complete lower parking lots at both Magna Vista and Bassett high schools.
• Met in closed session to discuss appointments and separations of personnel, student matters and legal matters.
• Approved a motion that Joe DeVault, board vice chairman, be designated as the voting delegate to represent the school board at the Virginia School Boards Association Delegate Assembly and Regional Meeting of the 2012 VSBA/VASS Annual Convention. Kathy Rogers, board chairman, was designated in the July meeting, but she cannot take the position because she already serves on the VSBA board.
The next regular school board meeting will be at 9 a.m. Oct. 4 in the board meeting room on the first floor of the Henry County Administration Building.
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