Obama renominated, says voters face "clearest choice" in a generation

US President Barack Obama accepted his party's nomination for a second four-year term on Thursday night, telling US voters they "face the clearest choice of any time in a generation." "Over the next few years, big decisions will be made in Washington on jobs and the economy; taxes and deficits; energy and education; war and peace -- decisions that will have a huge impact on our lives and our children's lives for decades to come," he told those attending the Democratic National Convention and a national TV audience. In foreign policy, the President said that for all the progress his administration has made, challenges remain. "Terrorist plots must be disrupted. Europe's crisis must be contained. Our commitment to Israel's security must not waver, and neither must our pursuit of peace," he said. "The Iranian government must face a world that stays united against its nuclear ambitions," he said. "The historic change sweeping across the Arab World must be defined not by the iron fist of a dictator or the hate of extremists, but by the hopes and aspirations of ordinary people who are reaching for the same rights that we celebrate today." Addressing his opponents, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, Obama said, "My opponent and his running mate are new to foreign policy, but from all that we have seen and heard, they want to take us back to an era of blustering and blundering that cost America so dearly. "After all, you do not call Russia our number one enemy -- and not al Qaeda -- unless you are still stuck in a Cold War time warp," the President 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 Romney's remark in London this summer, in which he said the British did not seem to be prepared for the Olympics. "My opponent said it was 'tragic' to end the war in Iraq, and he will not tell us how he will end the war in Afghanistan," Obama said. "I have, and I will. And while my opponent would spend more money on military hardware that our Joint Chiefs do not even want, I will use the money we are no longer spending on war to pay down our debt and put more people back to work rebuilding roads, bridges, schools and runways. After two wars that have cost us thousands of lives and over a trillion dollars, it is time to do some nation-building right here at home." Around the world, the United States has strengthened old alliances and forged new coalitions to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, he said. "We have reasserted our power across the Pacific and stood up to China on behalf of our workers," he said. "From Burma to Libya to South Sudan, we have advanced the rights and dignity of all human beings -- men and women; Christians and Muslims and Jews." The President injected a note of humility into his speech by quoting former US President Abraham Lincoln. "While I am proud of what we have achieved together," he said, "I am far more mindful of my own failings, knowing exactly what Lincoln meant when he said, 'I have been driven to my knees many times by the overwhelming conviction that I had no place else to go.' But as I stand here tonight, I have never been more hopeful about America." On the domestic front, the President asked voters to rally around a set of goals in manufacturing, energy, education, national security and the deficit -- "a real, achievable plan that will lead to new jobs, more opportunity and rebuild this economy on a stronger foundation. "We can choose a future where we export more products and outsource fewer jobs," he said. "After a decade that was defined by what we bought and borrowed, we are getting back to basics and doing what America has always done best: We are making things again." On the economy, Obama said the Republicans "want your vote, but they do not want you to know their plan, and that is because all they have to offer is the same prescription they have had for the last thirty years: 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." The President said he has cut taxes for those who need it - middle-class families and small businesses. "But I do not believe that another round of tax breaks for millionaires will bring good jobs to our shores or pay down our deficit," he said. "I do not believe that firing teachers or kicking students off financial aid will grow the economy or help us compete with the scientists and engineers coming out of China." "After all that we have been through, I do not believe that rolling back regulations on Wall Street will help the small businesswoman expand or the laid-off construction worker keep his home," he said. "We have been there, we have tried that, and we are not going back. We are moving forward." On the energy issue, the President confronted directly Republican criticism of his remarks four years ago as a candidate that he would begin to stop the rise of the oceans and address climate change. "You can choose the path where we control more of our own energy," he said. After 30 years of inaction, the President said his administration raised fuel standards so that by the middle of the next decade, cars and trucks will go twice as far on a gallon of gas. "We have doubled our use of renewable energy, and thousands of Americans have jobs today building wind turbines and long-lasting batteries," he said. "In the last year alone, we cut oil imports by one million barrels a day -- more than any administration in recent history. And today, the United States of America is less dependent on foreign oil than at any time in nearly two decades." Americans have a choice between a strategy that reverses this progress or one that builds on it, he said. "We have opened millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration in the last three years, and we will open more," Obama said. "But unlike my opponent, I will not let oil companies write this country's energy plan, or endanger our coastlines, or collect another four billion dollars in corporate welfare from our taxpayers. "We are offering a better path -- a future where we keep investing in wind and solar and clean coal; where farmers and scientists harness new biofuels to power our cars and trucks; where construction workers build homes and factories that waste less energy; where we develop a hundred-year supply of natural gas that is right beneath our feet," he said. "If you choose this path, we can cut our oil imports in half by 2020 and support more than 600,000 new jobs in natural gas alone. "And yes, my plan will continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is heating our planet, because climate change is not a hoax," he added. "More droughts and floods and wildfires are not a joke. They are a threat to our children's future, and in this election, you can do something about it." In his speech preceding Obama's, Vice President Joe Biden hailed Obama's "gutsy" decisions, from rescuing the auto industry to ordering the mission to kill Osama Bin Laden. "We know we have more work to do," Biden said. "We know we are not there yet. But not a day has gone by in the last four years when I haven't been grateful that Barack Obama is our President, because he always has the courage to make the tough decisions." US Senator John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, devoted his speech Thursday evening to praising Obama on foreign policy while noting the inexperience of Romney on that front.