SALON

Tuesday, Jun 12, 2012 4:46 PM UTC

THE RACE: Obama, Romney ramp up economic battle

By

Topics: From the Wires,

THE RACE: Obama, Romney ramp up economic battleRepublican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney gestures during a campaign stop at Con-Air Industries, Tuesday, June 12, 2012, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (Credit: AP)

President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney are sharpening their economic talking points.

Romney wants to keep needling Obama over his comments on the private sector doing “fine” and Obama is likely seeking another opportunity for explaining himself.

Romney focused on the economy in a speech Tuesday in Orlando in which he saluted “entrepreneurs and innovators” whom he said “make the United States the economic powerhouse it is.”

“Sometimes I don’t think the president understands that,” Romney said.

At the same time, Obama’s campaign released a new ad disparaging Romney’s economic record in leading Massachusetts from 2003-2007.

“When Mitt Romney was governor, Massachusetts was No. 1. Number one in state debt,” says an announcer in the 30-second spot, citing a 2007 Moody’s report showing state bond indebtedness equivalent to $4,153 per person.

It will air in battleground states Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia and follows a $10 million ad campaign last week attacking job creation under Romney.

Obama will pit his economic agenda against Romney’s in a campaign speech Thursday in Cleveland. The increased economic dueling by the campaigns comes amid discouraging economic reports.

Romney has called Obama “out of touch” for suggesting private-sector job growth was strong. Striking back, the Obama team is charging that Romney would lay off firefighters and teachers, an assertion that Romney on Tuesday called “absurd.”

The Republican candidate begins a five-day bus tour on Friday through New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan. His campaign says it will help show Obama’s economic policies are failing everyday Americans.

Meanwhile, an emphasis on the economy “will be reflected in every action the president takes as long as he is in office,” says White House spokesman Jay Carney.

Obama was campaigning Tuesday in Baltimore and Philadelphia.

__

Follow Tom Raum on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tomraum. For more AP political coverage, look for the 2012 Presidential Race in AP Mobile’s Big Stories section. Also follow https://twitter.com/APCampaign and AP journalists covering the campaign: https://twitter.com/AP/ap-campaign-2012

More Tom Raum.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations