- Obama advisers wouldn't answer yes or no on whether voters are better off than in 2008
- Day after, they try to massage their message, saying signs show improving economy
- Obama and Biden rally union faithful at Labor Day rallies
- Ryan to "bracket" Democratic convention with North Carolina rally
Charlotte, North Carolina (CNN) -- Democrats tried to massage their message a day before their convention after struggling to come up with a definitive answer on whether voters would feel that they were better off since President Barack Obama took office.
Brad Woodhouse, communications director for the Democratic National Committee, said on CNN's "Early Start" on Monday that Americans were "absolutely" better off than four years ago, portraying the president as a pilot who saved a crashing plane.
"The truth is that the American people know, we were literally a plane, the trajectory was towards the ground. He got the stick and pulled us up out of that decline," Woodhouse said.
Woodhouse's answer was far more definitive than those of some top Obama advisers on Sunday talk shows who stumbled over the question of how Americans feel four years after Obama's election.
While Obama senior campaign adviser David Axelrod told Fox News, "We're in a better position than we were four years ago," he didn't directly answer the question if voters thought they were better off.
"I think the average American recognizes that it took years to create the crisis that erupted in 2008 and peaked in January of 2009," Axelrod said. "And it's going to take some time to work through it."
White House senior adviser David Plouffe had a similar answer on ABC, saying, "I think everyone understands we were this close to a Great Depression. Because of the leadership of this president, we staved that off. We're beginning to recover."
Republicans pounced when Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley's answered "no" to the question on CBS on Sunday. Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan issued a statement saying O'Malley's admission was proof that Obama's policies aren't working.
On Monday, O'Malley appeared on CNN, saying the country as a whole was "clearly better off" since jobs are being created on a monthly basis, rather than lost.
But he still stipulated that more work had to be accomplished in reversing what he called the "Bush recession."
Republicans had raised the question in their convention with both GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Ryan asking the question in their acceptance speeches.
Obama was riding into Charlotte, North Carolina, and the convention trying to rally two significant parts of his base with a series of speeches on college campuses over the weekend and a United Auto Workers Labor Day rally in Toledo, Ohio, on Monday.
Obama was to travel to Louisiana later to meet with local officials and view storm damage from Hurricane Isaac.
Vice President Joe Biden also tries to rally the union base with a Labor Day rally in Detroit followed by a parade organized by the Michigan AFL-CIO.
A U-Haul truck loaded with equipment for Biden's rally that had been stolen from a Detroit hotel on Sunday was found on Monday, the Secret Service said.
Agency spokesman Ed Donovan said some of the gear, which was not described, was discovered in an abandoned house while the rest appeared to be inside the truck, which was located by police near a hospital
A law enforcement official who did not speak for attribution said the original contents of the truck did not include any weapons.
Just as Democrats planned to campaign in Florida during the Republican convention before Isaac scrapped those plans, Ryan was scheduled to be at the other end of North Carolina on Monday with a rally at East Carolina University in Greenville.
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