“This is not a three-year project, this is an eight-year project,” he said Friday night. “So I need you one more time. And we’re confident we can get there, but we’re going to need your help.”

Obama gave credit to his administration for helping to bring about new job growth and stabilize the banking system. But he said he ran for the White House not just to restore the status quo, but to improve upon it.

“I ran because the status quo pre-crisis wasn’t good enough,” he said. “But it was for too many people a betrayal of the American Dream — the idea that if you work hard, you can make it, regardless of what you look like, where you come from, what your name is; that as a consequence of hard work you could support a family, buy a home, send your kids to college, retire with dignity and respect.