Obama challenges Republicans as convention opens

US President Barack Obama Tuesday laid down a challenge to Republicans opening their nominating convention by beseeching young people to re-enlist in his now battered crusade of hope and change.

Obama punched out a defense of his record as a reformer before 6,000 students in Iowa, trying to conjure up the old spirit of idealism that has quieted since 2008, saying: "Your vote made that happen. You made that change."

"Don't believe them when they tell you, 'you can't make a difference'" Obama said, in a reworked and pithy version of his stump speech, delivered in Iowa, where youthful armies of campaign workers first animated his White House hopes.

"I'm asking you one more time to do what we did, what young people all across the state of Iowa did four years ago. I'm asking you to believe," Obama said at Iowa State University.

"I'm asking you to believe, not in my ability to bring about the changes you want to see -- I'm asking you to believe in your ability. I'm asking you to believe in what you can accomplish."

"I'm counting on you."

Obama reeled off a list of achievements likely to appeal to young voters, including the repeal on the ban on gays serving in the military, getting US troops out of Iraq and new measures to alleviate student loan debt.

In 2008, Obama captured 66 percent of the youth vote, defying conventional wisdom that young and first-time voters are fickle and often do not show up at polling stations.

He leads the same category this time, but the campaign of Republican Mitt Romney believes many young voters are disillusioned with Obama now, and that it can cut into his advantage among graduates unable to find jobs.

The Romney camp also believes that the president will fail to rekindle his surge of grassroots support, given the stalled economy, high unemployment and a political brand sullied by three punishing years in power.

Obama's event, part of a tour of college campuses in swing states Iowa, Colorado and Virginia, was timed to coincide with a new academic year and came just over two months before he asks voters for a second term.

It also represented Obama's initial response to the Republican National Convention opening in Tampa, Florida, which will nominate Romney and vice presidential pick Paul Ryan on the party's presidential ticket.

"This week in Tampa my opponents will offer you their agendas. It should be a pretty entertaining show -- I'm sure they will, you know, have some wonderful things to say about me," Obama said.

"But what you won't hear from them is a path forward that -- that meets the challenges of our time."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-challenges-republicans-convention-opens-203010129.html

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