(GREENVILLE) -- As Democrats were celebrating the near beginning of the Democratic Convention with a street festival in Uptown Charlotte, Republican VP candidate Paul Ryan was asking voters a loaded question 230 miles away in Greenville.  Ryan asked a crowd at East Carolina University if they were better off now than they were four years ago.

"The President cannot tell you that you are better off and if we want to improve things then how would rehiring the same administration accomplish that," asked Ryan.  "It wouldn't."

He told thousands gathered in Greenville on Monday that President Obama's approach to the economy compares to the failed economic efforts of the Carter Administration. "Every president since The Great Depression who asked Americans to send them into a second term could say that you are better off today than you were four years ago except for Jimmy Carter and for President Barack Obama."

Other presidential campaign news out of North Carolina on Monday included a new Elon University poll of likely North Carolina voters.  The poll found Republican presidential candidate Mitt romney with a slight lead over President Obama, 47 percent to 43 percent.