Obama Vows Convention Speech Will Offer Specific Plans

President Barack Obama, offering a preview of his speech this week at the Democratic National Convention, promised to lay out details of how he’d right the nation’s battered economy while saying Republican challenger Mitt Romney proposes only “retreads.”

“I will offer what I believe is a better path forward, a path that will create good jobs and strengthen the middle class and grow our economy,” Obama told a rally today at Norfolk State University in Virginia.

Making a final campaign foray in a swing state before heading tomorrow to the party gathering in Charlotte, North Carolina, Obama sought to rev up supporters with attacks on Romney.

Romney is in Vermont today, preparing for the presidential candidate debates that begin next month.

Obama repeated the line of attack he’s been using against Romney, saying Republican proposals are vague promises to return to policies that haven’t worked in the past.

At their convention last week, Republicans argued “Romney knows a secret to creating jobs and growing the economy,” Obama said. “The only problem was he kept it secret.”

Obama in 2008 became the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry Virginia since former President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. While the Obama won the commonwealth by 6 points four years ago, polls now show him locked in a tight race against Romney. Obama campaign advisers have said there may only be a point difference between the two candidates on election day in November. Virginia holds 13 of the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win.

While Virginia’s July unemployment rate of 5.9 percent is below the national average, it’s been increasing slightly each month since May.

To contact the reporter on this story: Julianna Goldman in Norfolk, Virginia, at jgoldman6@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steven Komarow at skomarow1@bloomberg.net