Democrats gather for national convention in Charlotte - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

Delegates are gathering in Charlotte, North Carolina this week for the Democratic National convention. They will officially nominate President Obama for re-election. He's scheduled to speak on Thursday night.

Obama is facing a tough challenge from GOP rival Mitt Romney, although some polls suggest the Republicans, who held their convention in Tampa last week, saw little to no bounce.

WTHR political reporter Kevin Rader is covering the DNC in Charlotte. Get updates from him here.

Obama shortened his campaign schedule after Isaac pounded the Gulf Coast, but he will still rally the labor vote in Ohio on Monday.

In Louisiana, Obama will visit one of the areas hardest by the hurricane, St. John the Baptist Parish, about 30 miles west of New Orleans. Obama will view the storm damage and assess recovery efforts before addressing reporters.

People remember the hope and the history of Obama's first presidential campaign. For him or against him, they picture candidate Barack Obama as the one who stood on the Democrats' stage in Denver and declared, "It's time for us to change America."

Forgotten, it seems, is what Obama said after he actually won. In November, four years ago, he said solemnly that the road ahead would be long. In his words, "We may not get there in one year, or even one term."

Now, Obama needs voters to recall how life was back at the start, to judge what he has done as unfinished but productive, not as a failure.

As he accepts renomination Thursday night in Charlotte, N.C., his message of hope is still there. But the pitch now is a lot more hang-in-there-with-me.

Obama's campaign is running a new television ad claiming Republican Mitt Romney's policies would "hit the middle class harder." The ad says Romney wants to extend tax cuts for millionaires at the expense of middle-income earners.

Romney has called for an extension of tax cuts first approved by George W. Bush for all income earners. Obama wants to let the cuts expire at the end of the year for families making more than $250,000 a year.

The ad says Romney doesn't see the "heavy load" the middle class is carrying.

The ad is running in Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia, key battleground states.

Meantime, Mitt Romney's presidential campaign is launching an aggressive Republican response at the site of the Democratic National Convention. The goal: stealing attention and driving new questions about President Barack Obama's leadership on the eve of his nomination for a second term.

As thousands of Democratic activists gather in Charlotte on Monday, Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan will campaign 230 miles to the east in Greenville. Aides say that the Wisconsin congressman will focus on a simple question the campaign is driving this week: "Are you better off than you were four years ago?"

Romney, meanwhile, will spend much of the week in New Hampshire and Vermont preparing for three fall debates with Obama, the first scheduled for Oct. 3.

(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)