LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Republicans remain on the offensive, denouncing Obama for telling a TV reporter that he would give himself a grade of "incomplete" for his first term.

"Four years into a presidency and its incomplete? The president is asking people just to be patient with him?" Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan said on CBS's "This Morning."

"The kind of recession we had, we should be bouncing out of it," Ryan said. "We're not creating jobs at near the pace we could. That's why we're offering big solutions for the big problems we have today."

In the president's defense, Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki says Obama was simply saying more work was needed to turn around a stumbling economy with a high unemployment rate.

"I think an incomplete and a desire to do more is far better than a failing grade," she told reporters on Air Force One.

The Democratic Party must face harsh reality in the light of recent statistics. New surveys have shown that U.S. manufacturing shrank at its sharpest clip in more than three years last month. Exports and hiring in the sector also slumped.

The road ahead for Obama and his allies will be to persuade voters disappointed by his first White House term that things will be better the second time around. The president must also portray the budget-slashing economic remedies offered by Romney and Ryan as unacceptable alternatives. Democrats must strive to keep up voter enthusiasm for an incumbent in tough economic times.

Obama's list of successes includes ordering the mission that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to the bailout of the auto industry.

Organizers are also watching the weather as scattered thunderstorms were predicted for Thursday night when Obama is scheduled to give his speech in an open-air stadium.

Romney and Obama remain close in opinion polls ahead of the November 6 election. Obama hopes to get more of a convention "bounce" in polls than Romney, who gained a few percentage points at most from the Tampa, Florida, event.

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