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Obama tells his supporters re-election is no sure thing

President Barack Obama acknowledged that his re-election is not a sure thing because of public skepticism over the economy, but said his campaign would put forward a vision aligned with the mood of the country.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama acknowledged that his re-election is not a sure thing because of public skepticism over the economy, but said his campaign would put forward a vision aligned with the mood of the country.

Democrats have been targeting former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as the most likely Republican nominee but noted that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s surge in the polls has made the Republican contest very unpredictable.

The president, addressing donors Tuesday at a hotel near the White House, drew attention to his efforts to heal the economy, end the Iraq war and overhaul health care but said “all those things don’t mean that much to somebody if they’re still out of work right now or their house is still underwater by $100,000. So, yeah, this is going to be tough.”

“We’re going to have to fight for it,” he said. Obama said the campaign would pursue “the vision that is truest to our history and most representative of the core decency of the American people.”

Obama spoke hours after his top campaign advisers said they were uncertain about which Republican will emerge to challenge him next year but predicted a long Republican Party primary contest that they say will produce a weaker opponent in 2012.

Republicans said Obama and his advisers keep talking about his “vision” for the country but that all he has offered are empty promises.

“After three years of Obama, Americans want results — not more of his vision that has lost jobs and created record deficits,” said Kirsten Kukowski, a Republican National Committee spokeswoman.

Romney and Gingrich remain locked in a close contest in early Republican voting states like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina with less than a month before voters begin assessing the Republican field. The Republican field repeatedly has blamed Obama for the nation’s economic woes and said his policies have failed to jumpstart the economy.

Obama campaign officials said the president’s speech last week in Kansas offered a glimpse of what his message will be next year: His argument that the middle class has faced numerous challenges during the past decade and that the country’s economic policies must give everyone a “fair shot and a fair share.”

The campaign officials also claimed an organizational advantage over the Republicans. They said they have more staff on the ground in Iowa than the Republicans and have had about 1 million conversations with supporters and about 90,000 in-person meetings with volunteers since Obama launched his re-election campaign in April.

Obama’s campaign outlined several potential paths to victory that would build upon states that Democrat John Kerry won in 2004 and winning in Western states like Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada or holding onto Southern states Obama captured in 2008, such as Virginia and North Carolina.