VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — President Barack Obama pledged to create many more jobs and "make the middle class secure again"
in a campaign-closing appeal on Thursday — more than five weeks before Election Day — to voters already casting ballots in
large numbers.
Republican Mitt Romney, focusing on threats beyond American shores, accused the commander in chief of backing dangerous cuts
in defense spending.
"The idea of cutting our military is
unthinkable and devastating. And when I become president we will not,"
declared the challenger,
struggling to reverse a slide in opinion polls.
Romney and Obama campaigned a few hundred
miles apart in Virginia, 40 days before their long race ends. They'll be
in much
closer quarters next Wednesday in Denver — for the first of three
presidential debates on the campaign calendar and perhaps
the challenger's best remaining chance to change the trajectory of
the campaign.
In a race where the economy is the dominant
issue, there was a fresh sign of national weakness as the Commerce
Department
lowered its earlier estimate of tepid growth last spring. Romney
and his allies seized on the news as evidence that Obama's
policies aren't working.
There was good news for the president in the form of a survey by The Washington Post and Kaiser Family Foundation suggesting
he has gained ground among older voters after a month-long ad war over Republican plans for Medicare.
The pace also was quickening in the struggle for control of the U.S. Senate.
Prominent Republican conservatives pledged
financial and political support for Rep. Todd Akin in Missouri. That
complicated
Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill's bid for re-election. But it
also left Romney, running mate Paul Ryan and the rest of the
GOP hierarchy in an awkward position after they tried
unsuccessfully to push Akin off the ballot in the wake of his
controversial
comments about rape.
Farther west, in Arizona, Republican Rep. Jeff Flake unleashed an ad calling Democratic rival Richard Carmona "Barack Obama's
rubberstamp." It was not meant as a compliment in a state seemingly headed Romney's way, a response for sure to Democratic
claims that the Senate contest was unexpectedly close.
In the presidential race, early voting has
already begun in Virginia as well as South Dakota, Idaho and Vermont. It
began
during the day in Wyoming as well as in Iowa, like Virginia one of
the most highly contested states. Early voters had formed
a line a half block long in Des Moines before the elections office
opened at 8 a.m.
Campaigning in Virginia Beach, Obama said,
"It's time for a new economic patriotism, an economic patriotism rooted
in the
belief that growing our economy begins with a strong and thriving
middle class." It was a line straight from the two-minute
television commercial his campaign released overnight.
He said that if re-elected he would back
policies to create a million new manufacturing jobs, help businesses
double exports
and give tax breaks to companies that "invest in America, not ship
jobs overseas." He pledged to cut oil imports in half while
doubling the fuel efficiency of cars and trucks, make sure there
are 100,000 new teachers trained in math and science, cut
the growth of college tuition in half and expand student aid "so
more Americans can afford it."
He also touted a "balanced plan to reduce
the deficit by $4 trillion," but he included $1 trillion in reductions
that already
have taken place, and he took credit for saving half of the funds
budgeted for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that no longer
are needed.
Obama also said he would "ask the wealthy to pay a little more," a reference to the tax increase he favors on incomes over
$200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples. It is perhaps his most fundamental disagreement on policy with Romney,
who wants to extend expiring tax cuts at all levels, including the highest.
Obama's campaign put out a second, scathing
commercial during the day based on Romney's recorded comments from last
May that
47 percent of Americans don't pay income taxes and feel they are
victims entitled to government benefits. Romney added that
as a candidate his job is not to worry about them.
In the ad, Romney's by-now well-known
comments are heard as images scroll by of a white woman with two
children in a rural
setting, a black woman wearing workplace safety goggles, two older
white men wearing Veterans of Foreign Wars hats; a Latino,
and finally a white woman with safety goggles — each of them meant
to portray millions whom Romney described dismissively
in the appearance before donors four months ago.
Romney countered with a new ad of his own,
pointing to comments Obama made four years ago when he said he would
support proposals
to raise the cost of business for facilities than run on coal. "So
if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can;
it's just that it will bankrupt them," the then-presidential
candidate is seen saying.
The narrator adds, "Obama wages war on coal while we lose jobs to China, which is using more coal every day. Now your job
is in danger."
Romney campaigned at an American Legion hall in Springfield, Va., a suburb of Washington, D.C., accusing Obama of supporting
cuts in the defense budget that would be detrimental to the nation's military readiness.
"The world is not a safe place. It remains dangerous," he said, referring to North Korea, Syria, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"The idea of cutting our military commitment by a trillion dollars over this decade is unthinkable and devastating."
Appealing for support from his audience, he
said, "You realize we have fewer ships in the Navy than any time since
191. ...
Our Air Force is older and smaller than any time since 1947, when
it was formed. This is unacceptable. And the idea of shrinking
our active duty personnel by 100,000 or 200,000 — I want to add
100,000 to active duty personnel."
To have a strong military, he said, it's imperative to have a strong economy, yet he added that growth in China and Russia
is stronger than in the United States. He predicted that under Obama, there would be no improvement.
"So two -- two very different paths. One is the path the president's proposed, which is the status quo. His is the path of
-- well, he calls it 'forward.' I call it 'forewarned.' All right? All right?
The $1 trillion Romney mentioned in defense cuts had the support of Republicans and Democrats alike in Congress, although
he says GOP lawmakers made a mistake in voting for the reductions and several now want to prevent them from taking effect.