"President Obama says the country has come too far in the last four years to change course now. He kicked off his re-election campaign Saturday with a pair of high-profile rallies in two pivotal states, Ohio and Virginia."

"Obama acknowledged the economic recovery still has a long way to go. Yet he argued his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, would move the country backward, not forward."

"The president's first official re-election rallies had some of the trappings of his 2008 campaign: huge crowds, stirring music, even the old standby chant of 'Fired Up, Ready to Go.'"

"Obama said this campaign is still about hope and change, though he acknowledged many hopes were dashed by the severe recession that cost 3 million jobs in the six months before he took office."