PORTSMOUTH, Ohio (AP) — Republicans Mitt
Romney and Paul Ryan went back to school on Saturday to rally college
students in all
corners of all-important Ohio and hammer at President Barack Obama
for going easy on China over unfair trade practices. Obama
took precious time off the campaign trail to practice for the next
debate against his GOP rival.
It was an unspoken acknowledgment of the importance that Obama attaches to upping his game in Debate No.2 that the president
is largely dropping out of sight for five straight days in the final weeks of the race to prepare for Tuesday’s encounter
in Hempstead, N .Y.
Even while cloistered for debate prep at a sprawling resort in Williamsburg, Va., though, the president didn’t completely
cede the spotlight to Romney. His weekly radio and Internet address highlighted the Obama administration’s work to revive
the U.S. auto industry — a message aimed squarely at working-class voters in manufacturing-heavy states like Ohio.
Romney, for his part, told a crowd of
more than 3,000 people at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth that
Obama was ducking
an important decision on whether China is manipulating its
currency to gain a trade advantage. A decision was due on Monday,
but the Treasury Department said Friday the decision won’t come
until after global finance officials meet in early November.
That means a decision is unlikely before the Nov. 6 election.
“It’s time for us to stand up to China for their cheating,” Romney declared. “It’s got to stop.”
Romney framed the issue squarely as a matter of jobs, saying cheap Chinese products were driving American companies out of
business.
“We’ve got to get those jobs back and make trade to be fair,” Romney declared.
Ryan, too, criticized the
administration for failing to hold China accountable for its trade
practices. During a morning appearance
in northeastern Ohio at Youngstown State University, he told a
crowd of about 1,400 that his hometown of Janesville, Wis.,
was much like theirs — a “blue-collar, factory town” where the
struggles of the auto industry hit home hard.
Ryan said the president had led the country toward a higher national debt, steeper taxes and insufficient job growth.
“We can’t keep going down this path,” he said. “We can’t keep accepting this is the new normal.”
The Wisconsin congressman then
hopscotched to Bowling Green State University, in the northwestern part
of the state, where
he grabbed a bratwurst with mustard at the college Republicans’
tailgate party before the school’s football team took on his
alma mater, Miami (Ohio) University.
The Obama campaign dismissed the Republicans’ tough talk on China as nothing more than talk.
“Mitt Romney will never crack down on
China’s cheating — just look at his record,” Obama campaign spokesman
Danny Kanner said
in a statement. He said Romney had opposed Obama administration
efforts to impose tariffs on Chinese-made tires and had invested
in companies that shipped American jobs to China.
Obama’s campaign upped its celebrity quotient as the two sides claw for any advantage in a tight race: Actor Morgan Freeman’s
commanding voice narrates a new ad telling voters that Obama has met the nation’s challenges and “the last thing we should
do is turn back now.”
On Thursday, Bruce Springsteen will
team up with former President Bill Clinton to rally Obama voters in
Parma, Ohio, in what
will be the singer’s first political appearance this campaign.
“The Boss” plans a second event Thursday, in Ames, Iowa. Springsteen
campaigned for Obama in 2008, too.
Both sides are devoting huge time and effort to Ohio, this year’s battleground to end all battlegrounds, where polls show
Obama with a slight edge over Romney. Saturday’s emphasis by the two sides on the auto industry and manufacturing jobs was
designed to connect with blue-collar voters there.
Both sides also are keenly aware of the
importance of this year’s series of three presidential debates.
Romney’s strong performance
in the first debate on Oct. 3 gave his campaign a much-needed jolt
of energy, and the GOP nominee said his campaign still
had post-debate momentum over Obama.
“His campaign is about smaller and smaller things, and our campaign is about bigger and bigger crowds, fighting for a bright
future,” Romney said on warm, sunny fall day.
Joe Biden’s aggressive counterpunch in a debate with Ryan on Thursday cheered Democrats, but some critics thought the vice
president overdid the theatrics with his frequent eye rolls, headshakes and broad grins suggesting incredulity.
Obama’s campaign has acknowledged he
didn’t practice enough before his widely panned performance in the first
debate. Some
sessions were cut short, others canceled altogether, mainly
because of developments in Libya, where four Americans were killed
at a U.S. consulate.
The campaign has resisted calls from some Democrats to shake up Obama’s debate team. Senior advisers David Axelrod and David
Plouffe, along with former White House officials Anita Dunn and Ron Klain, still are running the preparations.
The president may have picked up a few pointers from Biden’s debate with Ryan. Obama watched the vice presidential debate
from aboard Air Force One and would chime in when Biden made a strong point.
“That’s a good one,” Obama said, according to aides.
Tuesday’s town hall-style debate at
Hofstra University will have an audience of about 80 undecided voters
selected by the
Gallup Organization. Moderator Candy Crowley of CNN will select
from among questions on foreign and domestic policy submitted
by the audience. The final debate, covering foreign policy, will
be Oct. 22 in Boca Raton, Fla.
Romney spent nearly four hours Saturday morning at a Columbus hotel preparing for the next debate, then boarded his campaign
bus for Shawnee State. From there, the Romney bus headed for Lebanon in southwest Ohio, where he gave a similar speech.
The Obama campaign isn’t leaving Ohio unguarded for long: Michelle Obama will visit Delaware and Cleveland on Monday and the
president will be in Athens on Wednesday.
To help keep Democratic ads like Freeman’s new appeal for Obama up and running in the hotly contested battleground states,
the president dispatched Biden to a pair of private fundraisers in Connecticut and New York on Saturday.