DEL RAY BEACH, Fla. — President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney traded their debate-prep books for stump speeches Tuesday, returning to packed campaign schedules in battleground states for the final two weeks of an increasingly deadlocked campaign.
With the last of three contentious debates behind them, and numerous polls showing that Obama’s once-significant lead has almost completely melted away, each candidate hoped to summon a final burst of energy to make his case to a dwindling number of undecided American voters.
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While campaigning in Delray Beach, Florida on Tuesday, President Obama said the most serious issue in the White House race is who voters can trust. Obama said that Gov. Mitt Romney is shifting his positions on key issues, but voters "can trust that I say what I mean."
“This is about trust, and there is no more serious issue in a presidential campaign than trust,’’ a pumped-up Obama told more than 10,000 screaming supporters at a local tennis club here.
Sounding not at all like a man in the fight of his political life, he mocked Romney’s shifting positions on several issues during the debate on foreign policy in Boca Raton on Monday night, which the president described — to the delight of the partisan crowd — as “a severe outbreak” of “Romnesia.”
“We’re accustomed to seeing politicians change their positions, from, like, four years ago,’’ Obama said. “We’re not accustomed to seeing a politician change their positions from four days ago.’’
Romney left Boca Raton and boarded a plane for Nevada, where he will campaign later Tuesday with his vice presidential nominee, Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.). His supporters argued that the debate — in which Obama was far more combative, while Romney often expressed approval of the president’s positions — reflected the incumbent’s increasing vulnerability and the challenger’s growing confidence.
“To me, the president was more like the challenger who was behind, and Governor Romney was more like the incumbent – he appeared presidential,” said Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who played Obama in Romney’s mock debates.
Eric Fehrnstrom, a senior adviser to Romney, said that while “Mitt Romney came here to debate America’s position in the world, I think Obama came here to defend his position in the campaign, which has deteriorated.”
Obama plans to sleep on Air Force One during a cross-country blitz over the next two days that will take him to almost every important battleground state: Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada. He plans a joint appearance with Vice President Biden in Dayton, Ohio, on Tuesday afternoon, and will detour to California on Wednesday for an appearance on NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.”
Romney, meanwhile, will appear with Ryan in Nevada and Colorado, and head from there to Iowa and all-important Ohio, hitting two or three states a day in the next two weeks. Advisers said Romney would start delivering his closing argument to voters this week, and is considering a major speech on debt and government spending in the coming days.
The Obama campaign is also pushing its closing argument — in the form of a booklet called “Blueprint for America’s Future” — that will be mailed, handed out and touted nationwide.
Much of it is a summary of proposals Obama has been offering on the campaign trail for months, such as plans to use half the savings from winding down wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for domestic infrastructure investment; create incentives for companies to bring jobs back to the United States (and end tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas); continue investing in “clean” energy; and recruit 100,000 new math and science teachers.
Obama only briefly mentioned the plan at his rally here, saying it includes steps to grow manufacturing, reward small-business owners and halve oil imports by 2020. Senior adviser David Axelrod said 3.5 million copies of the blueprint are being mailed to households in swing states, and millions more will be given out door to door.
“We feel strongly that we have the winning hand and a strong message about how we rebuild the economy, and a specific message on how to build this economy from the middle class out, and it stands in stark contrast to the same old failed policies of the last decade that have been offered by Governor Romney,” Axelrod said. “We’re eager to make those comparisons. It’s the reason we believe we’re ahead in this race, and it’s the reason we’re going to win this race.”
But with Obama leading Romney among likely voters by just one statistically insignificant percentage point in the latest Washington Post/ABC News national poll, the race at this point is still either candidate’s to win.
Wilgoren reported from Washington. Amy Gardner in Washington and Phil Rucker in Boca Raton contributed to this report.
With the last of three contentious debates behind them, and numerous polls showing that Obama’s once-significant lead has almost completely melted away, each candidate hoped to summon a final burst of energy to make his case to a dwindling number of undecided American voters.
Video
While campaigning in Delray Beach, Florida on Tuesday, President Obama said the most serious issue in the White House race is who voters can trust. Obama said that Gov. Mitt Romney is shifting his positions on key issues, but voters "can trust that I say what I mean."
“This is about trust, and there is no more serious issue in a presidential campaign than trust,’’ a pumped-up Obama told more than 10,000 screaming supporters at a local tennis club here.
Sounding not at all like a man in the fight of his political life, he mocked Romney’s shifting positions on several issues during the debate on foreign policy in Boca Raton on Monday night, which the president described — to the delight of the partisan crowd — as “a severe outbreak” of “Romnesia.”
“We’re accustomed to seeing politicians change their positions, from, like, four years ago,’’ Obama said. “We’re not accustomed to seeing a politician change their positions from four days ago.’’
Romney left Boca Raton and boarded a plane for Nevada, where he will campaign later Tuesday with his vice presidential nominee, Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.). His supporters argued that the debate — in which Obama was far more combative, while Romney often expressed approval of the president’s positions — reflected the incumbent’s increasing vulnerability and the challenger’s growing confidence.
“To me, the president was more like the challenger who was behind, and Governor Romney was more like the incumbent – he appeared presidential,” said Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who played Obama in Romney’s mock debates.
Eric Fehrnstrom, a senior adviser to Romney, said that while “Mitt Romney came here to debate America’s position in the world, I think Obama came here to defend his position in the campaign, which has deteriorated.”
Obama plans to sleep on Air Force One during a cross-country blitz over the next two days that will take him to almost every important battleground state: Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada. He plans a joint appearance with Vice President Biden in Dayton, Ohio, on Tuesday afternoon, and will detour to California on Wednesday for an appearance on NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.”
Romney, meanwhile, will appear with Ryan in Nevada and Colorado, and head from there to Iowa and all-important Ohio, hitting two or three states a day in the next two weeks. Advisers said Romney would start delivering his closing argument to voters this week, and is considering a major speech on debt and government spending in the coming days.
The Obama campaign is also pushing its closing argument — in the form of a booklet called “Blueprint for America’s Future” — that will be mailed, handed out and touted nationwide.
Much of it is a summary of proposals Obama has been offering on the campaign trail for months, such as plans to use half the savings from winding down wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for domestic infrastructure investment; create incentives for companies to bring jobs back to the United States (and end tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas); continue investing in “clean” energy; and recruit 100,000 new math and science teachers.
Obama only briefly mentioned the plan at his rally here, saying it includes steps to grow manufacturing, reward small-business owners and halve oil imports by 2020. Senior adviser David Axelrod said 3.5 million copies of the blueprint are being mailed to households in swing states, and millions more will be given out door to door.
“We feel strongly that we have the winning hand and a strong message about how we rebuild the economy, and a specific message on how to build this economy from the middle class out, and it stands in stark contrast to the same old failed policies of the last decade that have been offered by Governor Romney,” Axelrod said. “We’re eager to make those comparisons. It’s the reason we believe we’re ahead in this race, and it’s the reason we’re going to win this race.”
But with Obama leading Romney among likely voters by just one statistically insignificant percentage point in the latest Washington Post/ABC News national poll, the race at this point is still either candidate’s to win.
Wilgoren reported from Washington. Amy Gardner in Washington and Phil Rucker in Boca Raton contributed to this report.