LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rumbling into its final four weeks, the presidential campaign is playing out on both coasts and multiple fronts, with Republican Mitt Romney seeking stature on foreign affairs and President Barack Obama raising political cash by the millions.
Negative ads, charges of dishonesty and dwindling time are all setting the tone.
Joining celebrities for fundraising in Los Angeles on Sunday, Obama for the first time needled himself over a poor debate performance. But he declared he had the right focus and “I intend to win.”
Romney was in Virginia, trying to bury the memories of his fumbled trip abroad this summer and knock Obama back on national security. “Hope is not a strategy,” he said in excerpts of a Monday speech at the Virginia Military Institute.
The campaigns also were eyeing the next debate, the sole faceoff between Vice President Joe Biden and the GOP running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, which will grab even more attention as the Thursday night event nears. Ryan’s challenge is to overcome his lack foreign policy expertise or national debate experience against Biden, who has extensive experience on both fronts.
Ryan said voters are paying closer attention as Election Day approaches and accused the Democratic ticket of distorting the GOP ticket’s record.
“Believe you me, I understand this man is extremely experienced, he’s a gifted speaker, he’s a proven debater,” the Republican vice presidential nominee said on The Frank Beckman Show on Detroit radio station WJR. “So we definitely have our work cut out for us. But the problem the vice president has that he just can’t get around is he has to try and defend Barack Obama’s record and it’s not a very good record to defend.”
The election hangs as ever on persuadable voters in fewer than 10 states, with Iowa, Ohio, Virginia and Florida all set for candidate visits this week.
In an election-year display of an incumbent’s power, Obama on Monday was declaring a national monument at the home of Latino labor leader Cesar Chavez, the United Farmworkers Union founder who died in 1993. Sure to appeal Hispanic voters in swing states, Obama’s move comes at the start of a day in which he will later raise political cash at events in San Francisco.
Romney was after the bigger stage of the day.
His foreign policy speech seeks to send tough signals on Iran and Syria and portray Obama as weak for his administration’s changing explanation for the deadly attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Libya.
“We’re not going to be lectured by someone who has been an unmitigated disaster on foreign policy,” Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
Voters give Obama higher marks than Romney on questions of national security and crisis response, and world affairs in general are a distant priority compared with economic woes, polling shows. Romney, though, is seeking to broaden his explanation about how he would serve as commander in chief.
After polls recently suggested Obama had narrow leads in several swing states, the Romney campaign says the race is tightening following his strong performance in last week’s debate. To help maintain his momentum, Romney has tweaked his message over the last week, highlighting his compassionate side and centrist political positions.
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