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Updated 2:35 p.m. ET -- Four days before voters head to the polls, President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney sought to bring their different economic visions into sharp relief before throngs of Midwestern voters who could decide the election.
Romney, who delivered on Friday what he said was the “closing argument” of his campaign, said the economy was hopelessly mired in stagnation under Obama, and promised to deliver “real change” if elected.
Jim Young / Reuters
Supporters of Mitt Romney gesture at a campaign rally in West Allis, Wis., Nov. 2, 2012.
Obama pointed to green shoots of economic recovery while barnstorming battleground Ohio, accusing his Republican opponent of deception on the question of change, as well as the 2009 auto industry rescue that could swing the outcome of the election.
Romney started the day with a speech in the battleground state of Wisconsin, assailing Obama for having failed at his promise to change Washington; Romney said his experience in the private sector and as governor of Massachusetts has shown he can boost the economy and bridge partisan divides that have grinded lawmaking in the nation’s capital to a virtual halt.
“The question of this election comes down to this: do you want more of the same or do you want real change?” Romney asked. “President Obama promised change, but he could not deliver it. I promise change, and I have a record of achieving it.”
A robust campaign schedule for Obama and Romney, along with their running mates, brought the campaign back to its central issue -- jobs and the economy -- just as a key monthly employment report showed that the U.S. added more jobs than expected in October. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that the economy added 171,000 jobs last month -- though the unemployment rate inched upward to 7.9 percent as the size of the American workforce grew.
Check out the NBC News' Election Briefing Book
“This morning we learned that companies hired more workers in October than at any time in the last eight months,” Obama said at a Friday rally in Ohio. “We've made real progress, but we are here today because we know we've got more work to do. As long as there's a single American who wants a job but can't find one ... our fight goes on.”
The stasis in campaigning that set in following the landfall of Hurricane Sandy earlier this week had all but faded Friday, as both campaigns resumed their full-throated critiques of one another.
Romney sought to wrest the mantle of “change” away from Obama, continuing on a theme he has stressed in recent weeks, and going so far as warning on Friday that if the U.S. doesn't change course, it could risk slipping back into recession.
Obama has long blamed Republican obstructionism and special interests for impeding his agenda, and thereby, the pace of economic recovery.
GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney rallies in West Allis, Wisconsin criticizing President Obama failed policies.
Romney, who made his first stop in Wisconsin since naming Paul Ryan, a congressman from the state, as his running mate, suggested his experience as governor of Massachusetts and a former private equity executive would help him succeed where Obama had failed.
Jobs data unlikely to sway undecided voters
"I have watched over these last few months as our campaign has gathered the strength of a movement," Romney said. "I will reach out to both sides of the aisle. I will bring people together, doing big things for the common good. I won’t just represent one party, I’ll represent one nation. I’ll try to show the best of America, at a time when only our best will do."
Romney traveled next to Ohio, where he would join Obama in courting the vote of the Buckeye State -- a pivotal Midwestern battleground where the outcome could determine the winner of the Electoral College.
There, the president upbraided Romney on the notion that the Republican nominee could deliver change, ridiculing the GOP nominee’s proposals as little more than warmed-over leftovers from the Bush administration.
At a campaign event in Hilliard, Ohio, President Obama criticized Governor Romney's message of change, saying the GOP presidential candidate is "a very talented salesman."
“We know what the right choice is, but let's face it, Gov. Romney is a talented salesman,” he said, accusing his Republican opponent of repackaging tired GOP ideas. “We know what change looks like, and what the governor's offering ain't it.”
The Obama campaign has relied on Ohio to serve as a kind of “firewall” for the president, concentrating for months on building an advantage over Romney in hopes of impeding the GOP candidate’s path to 270 electoral votes. Obama has led Romney by a slim, but consistent, margin in most public polls, prompting the Republican ticket to ratchet up its attacks on the administration’s handling of the auto industry bailout.
Romney’s offensive includes a series of new ads taking aim at the president on the issue of the auto industry bailout, stoking (incorrect) fears that Jeep would move production and jobs from the U.S. to China.
First Thoughts: A status-quo election?
Those suggestions earned him a strong rebuke from both the president, as well as Vice President Biden, who campaigned in Wisconsin, a state that has reliably supported Democrats in recent presidential cycles.
With Election Day looming, the state of Ohio has become the game-changer with President Obama and Mitt Romney planning six visits in the last four days of the presidential race. NBC's Chuck Todd reports.
"Everyone knows it’s not true. The car companies themselves have told Gov. Romney to knock it off," Obama said of the ads, accusing Romney of trying to scare the state’s autoworkers. "You don’t scare hardworking Americans just to scare up some votes. That’s not what being president is all about. That’s not leadership."
Biden, speaking in Beloit, went a step further: “In the last hours of this campaign, Romney and Ryan have become truly desperate. Romney will say anything to win.”
But Republicans returned to the issue of employment, arguing Friday that the employment situation had scarcely improved over the last four years, and hardly matched the White House’s projections upon selling its stimulus package in January of 2009. That, they said, justified Obama’s expulsion from office.
“In the president’s campaign for another term, he has offered nothing different and if he is re-elected, nothing different is exactly what we would get,” Ryan said at a rally in Colorado. “And we are not going to let him get away with that are we?”
Leave a Comment:
Obama’s record is that of a mind-numbingly
incompetent, anti-American, lying weasel.
Who happened to have a House full of Republicans who obstructed him at every turn when they were supposed to be helping him to clean up Bush Jr.s mess!
Have you ever had a government class?
Government, isn't that something Romney want s to get rid of?
how old are YOU? 6 I guess you were to young to remember, what Bush and the repo's did to this country! If your going to make a comment, try, oh try to sound smart
Rommel Romney will give us the change with his right hand and take our dollars with his left hand.
Romney has a record of Change...
Romney will change America for the WORSE!
Only if Romney means pocket change. Which is all that he'll leave us with.
NObama gave it his all but failed. At least he had more vacations, spent more and lied more than any other president.
Can't take no more of NObama.
Romney/Ryan 2012!
John
Bush holds the record for vacation days used.
Lied more than any president? ARE YOU KIDDING??? Lardbut Nixon and Spiro come to mind.
Change.....right. Right back to the policies of George W. Bush and Co. that got us into this economic mess in the first place. Change. What a crock. The GOP isn't about the future. They court the past as if it were Camelot. Pure fiction. It's the "good old days" model of history.....except it's not true. Romney and Ryan would have us all believe this Great Recession just fell out of the blue sky; that Republicans didn't have anything to do with it. When is this country going to wake up? When are Americans going to stop thinking like impatient, fickled teenagers who can't wait for their next reward? IT TAKES TIME TO DIG OUT OF THIS HOLE! Pres. Obama INHERITED a MESS. He didn't CREATE it! Grow the hell up, America!
Forward into economic malaise and third world status.
Romney would be the biggest mistake that this country can ill afford. He's a fake just like his made up, sham cult/religion is.
Yes, Romney and Ryan will give you change. If you
enjoyed 1642 the first time, you're gonna love it
when they get to toss out all your rights and benefits.
E-Verify will be the biggest raise the United States worker has received in decades!
Romney = Total twit
I thought republicans were against words like "promise", "hope", "change", etc.
On Tuesday, Let's all come together and give Obama the chance to learn a Real Life Lesson.
Let's show him what it's like to lose HIS job due to a FAILED Economics Plan, just like Millions of Americans have over the past 4 years.
UNINSTALLING OBAMA..... ████████████████▒ 99.9% complete
have yall notice fascism is coming in the name of God...with R/R and the whole tea party
have yall notice fascism is coming in the name of God...with R/R and the whole tea party
News flash !
Romney has hurt his back carrying a boat load of cash last night to the cayman island
I DON'T WANT A CULT LEADER IN THE WHITE HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I AGREE!!!
NOBAMA, NOBAMA, NOBAMA
UNINSTALLING OBAMA..... ████████████████▒ 99.9% complete
I promise change..or did I already say that, anyway I change anything, everything you ask of me....then I will screw you all over once I am elected...Mitt the Twitt, I for one will be glad when his bs is through.hahahahahahhahhahhhaahhaaha
(CNN) -- Anyone watching the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night heard the number 4.5 million several times.
"Despite incredible odds and united Republican opposition, our president took action, and now we've seen 4.5 million new jobs," San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, the party's keynote speaker, said.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who served as President Barack Obama's chief of staff, and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, who followed Obama's November rival Mitt Romney as governor of Massachusetts, both cited the same number.
Sights and sounds from the DNC
It's a big-sounding number, given the still-sputtering job market. So we're giving it a close eyeballing.
The facts:
The number Castro cites is an accurate description of the growth of private-sector jobs since January 2010, when the long, steep slide in employment finally hit bottom. But while a total of 4.5 million jobs sounds great, it's not the whole picture.
Watch full speech of Julian Castro
Photos: Best of the DNC
Nonfarm private payrolls hit a post-recession low of 106.8 million that month, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The figure currently stands at 111.3 million as of July.
While that is indeed a gain of 4.5 million, it's only a net gain of 300,000 over the course of the Obama administration to date. The private jobs figure stood at 111 million in January 2009, the month Obama took office.
And total nonfarm payrolls, including government workers, are down from 133.6 million workers at the beginning of 2009 to 133.2 million in July 2012. There's been a net loss of nearly 1 million public-sector jobs since Obama took office, despite a surge in temporary hiring for the 2010 census.
Meanwhile, the jobs that have come back aren't the same ones that were lost.
Are you better off?
According to a study released last week by the liberal-leaning National Employment Law Project, low-wage fields such as retail sales and food service are adding jobs nearly three times as fast as higher-paid occupations.
Conclusion:
The figure of 4.5 million jobs is accurate if you look at the most favorable period and category for the administration. But overall, there are still fewer people working now than when Obama took office at the height of the recession.
The link:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/05/politics/fact-check-obama-jobs/index.html
GB-2940791
Did he tell you over dinner last night?
No GB, it was in the WSJ and there is a youtube video of the CEO.
Here is a link to the video of the CEO of GM in his own words saying that 7 out of 10 GM vehicles have been made in China since 2011. I always check my facts. Why don't you? All of you libs and tax payers that bailed out GM should watch this. You probably won't, but you should. Remember, this is the CEO in his own words, nothing fake here. But the truth is always the truth.
Just one more thing, you won't find this in the LA or NY Times or any of the rest of the liberal media crap so you have to do a little research on your own.
Here, I just did it for you> This is the CEO of GM for God sake. 7 out of 10 vehicles made in China since 2011 in his own words in front of God and everyone. How can any lib dispute this fact unless MR Akerson is lying. Please get your info from other than the liberal media. I know it takes time from MTV, but try it for a change.
By the way, Ford did not take bailout money and made it just fine.
Because what we really need is a spray-tanned, disconnected, truth-challenged, political weather vane with no detectable personal convictions in the White House. That will speed the recovery.
I agree. Obama has got to go.
Spray Tanned? Are you kidding? Have you seen how dark Obama is?
UNINSTALLING OBAMA..... ████████████████▒ 99.9% complete
And Sandy will vote for a con man who has never had a job or a resume in the first place!
she will not do that..Romney has never work or his 5 lazy sons
I will not vote for someone who follows the con man Joseph Smith.
People of Faith for Obama.
Get a life Sandy----Who do you follow---Rev Wright? By the way Joseph smith was assassinated by devout Christians. Go figure! I am not a Mormon, but I live in a Mormon community and I would rather live next door to them than someone like you. They are always there to help whether you are of their faith or not and they do teach their children family values.
The bold print doesn't help either Sandy.
a--rand
I follow Jesus.
Who taught not to follow the teachings of man (Joseph Smith).
The tea party in the house are sitting and waiting for there leaders of ..fascism to slide on in..R/R
Change? How about a check, rich guy?
Change back to Dubya dippyness?
Romney
I promise change, I'll change my mind every day.
you don't get to say that the President has failed when you and your buddies have purposely blocked everything to come down the pike in order to make him look bad...
Remember, Democrats have ALSO blocked a lot of what has come down the pike.
UNINSTALLING OBAMA..... ████████████████▒ 99.9% complete