Dems To Open Convention Today

Mayor Julian Castro poses for a photograph with his cake during the send-off party for his trip to the Democratic National Convention at the St. Paul Community Center in San Antonio on Sept. 1. Castro delivers the convention’s keynote address Tuesday, a nod to the importance of Hispanic voters in the race. (AP Photo/San Antonio Express-News, Lisa Krantz)

Democrats open their national convention Tuesday offering President Barack Obama as America’s best chance to revive the ragged U.S. economy and asking voters to be patient with incomplete results so far. Michelle Obama, in her opening-night speech, aims to give people a very personal reminder of ‘‘the man that he was before he was president.” ‘‘The truth is that he has grown so much, but in terms of his core character and value, that has not been changed at all,’’ Mrs. Obama said in interview airing on SiriusXM’s ‘‘The Joe Madison Show.’’ The three-day convention has drawn thousands of delegates to a state Obama narrowly carried in 2008. And although Obama no longer is the fresh-faced newbie who leveraged a short Senate career into an audacious run for the nation’s highest office, he still can excite partisans, and Democrats were counting on massive numbers to pack a stadium for his speech later in the week/ Associated Press . More here.

Question: Are you better off today than you were four years ago?