Manchester, N.H. -- President Obama was back to his rousing 2008 form on the stump in a downtown park today, enough to give Sheryll Ross hope for his re-election. The 59-year-old elementary school teacher lives in Wolfeboro, where Republican challenger Mitt Romney vacations. She walked in the same July 4 parade that Romney did, remembering that one person saw her Obama button and commented, “You must like communists.”

She brushed that off. But in the first debate, Obama’s performance was weak enough to shake her confidence.