"My main message is, we can't let a little thunder and lightning get us down. We are going to have to roll with it."

 

NPR's Ron Elving is in Charlotte, where he says the president will try to energise the crowd and still undecided voters to get behind him for another four years.

 

 

 

The president himself will try to rekindle some of that fire from 2008 and make people believe again, that the payoff for some of the sacrifices of the past four years, that the payoff for some of his policies that have been put in place painstakingly over the last four years, will come in the next four years.

 

Ron, I'm guessing though that the Obama campaign must be buoyed by the latest economic reports out. I mean they have been rather encouraging on the jobs front, and encouraging on hiring, as well as what's been happening in Europe, where we hear that the European Central Bank has taken some, what some are calling concrete measures to help struggling economies in Europe. And so we are seeing this play out on Wall Street in the US stocks. So what are you hearing if anything at all from the Obama campaign about today's reports?

 

The Obama campaign is pleased to hear good economic news on Thursday before his speech Thursday night. But they are concerned about some of the bad economic news we got earlier this week when the manufacturing sector reported its third straight month of contraction, not huge contraction, but it's going in the wrong direction and that could have a bad impact on the big news that everyone's waiting for, which is the jobs report that comes out on Friday. That's NPR's Ron Elving.

 

Meanwhile, Republican rival Mitt Romney says the president's been more talk than action on the economy, he spoke to reporters today in Manchester, New Hampshire.

 

Some encouraging data on the jobs market out today, details from NPR's John Ydstie.

 

The survey done by the payroll company ADP found that private employers added 201,000 jobs in August. That creates the hope that the government's employment numbers out tomorrow, will be better than the 135,000, analysts had been expecting. In another hopeful sign, the number of people signing up for unemployment benefits for the first time fell last week by 12,000. The positive jobs news helped drive the stock market sharply higher. John Ydstie, NPR News, Washington.

 

Speaking of, Dow Jones Industrial Average up 244 points, at 13,292; NASDAQ gaining 67, it's at 3,136; and S&P 500 up 29 at 1,432.

 

This is NPR.

 

Three prominent US lawmakers were in Iraq raising tough questions about whether Iran has been using Iraqi airspace to fly weapons to Syria. NPR's Michele Kelemen reports the State Department is also raising concerns about this.

 

A State Department spokesman says the Iranians will stop but nothing to support the Syrian regime. And Patrick Ventrel adds the US has been encouraging Iraq to require Iranian airplanes to land and be inspected if they want to use Iraqi airspace. 

 

"It's something we've raised in the past, it's something that they took steps to address in the past, and their responsibility to continue to do so." 

 

Senators John McCain, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham told reporters in Baghdad, that they raised concerns with the Iraqi leaders about the overflight. Iraqi officials say they haven't seen any evidence that Iranian flights are carrying weapons or military hardware. Michele Kelemen, NPR News, Washington.

 

Syrian troops may be back in control of a border town near Jordan. Activists saying hundreds of soldiers bombarded Tel Chehab this morning, outgunning rebels and forcing them to pull back. Meanwhile, the fight for Syria's largest city Aleppo continues with neither side appearing any closer to claiming control.

 

People across Bermuda stocking up on emergency supplies ahead of Hurricane Leslie. The storm is expected to sweep past Bermuda's eastern shore early Sunday.

 

Now we know about the excitement building ahead of President Obama's speech tonight. Another appearance is expected to rouse a crowd at the Charlotte event. Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, she'll lead the Pledge of Allegiance. Giffords survived a gunshot wound to the head during a shooting rampage in Tucson last year.