Obama and Romney Hit the Swing States
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Call it the Swing State Tour. Expect repeated trips to these battlegrounds. Nine states will all but certainly determine who is President for the next four years.
There, both teams are wielding the same kitchen sink strategy: knock the other guy down, boost yourself, limit your specifics.
Obama has a glossy new booklet for instance, offered to counter that criticism he's unveiling no new agenda. A close look shows nothing he hasn't mentioned before.
Romney, meanwhile, has yet to outline what tax deductions he'd eliminate to balance the budget, which is at the center of his agenda.
Both sides are of course focusing on voting, but not necessarily mean only on Election Day. They want people to take advantage of state laws that allow early voting. To inspire just that, the President is casting his ballot this week in Illinois – the first president to vote early.
On the stump, Obama is jazzing up his base with lines about gay rights, immigration and abortion. He also draws cheers for a new riff on Romney's shifting positions. He calls it Romnesia.
"If you say that you love American cars during a debate, you're a car guy. But you wrote an article titled 'Let Detroit Go Bankrupt' - you definitely have a case of Romnesia."
He also has a new 60-second ad that seemed like a closing argument.
Romney has a new attack ad, out of Monday's debate; a foreign policy matchup that in many cases had the Republican agreeing on with Obama.
As he stresses the economy, that niceness is now gone.
"His is a status quo candidacy, his is a message of going forward with the same policies of the last four years, and that's why his campaign, and ours is gaining so much steam," Romney said.
Romney has surged to a tie in the popular vote. But polls still have Obama narrowly ahead where it matters, the swing states.