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| Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney campaigns at the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Fla., Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012. |
MIAMI (AP) -- President Barack Obama cast Mitt Romney on Thursday as an out-of-touch challenger for the White House and an advocate of education cuts that could cause teacher strikes to spread from Chicago to other cities. The Republican countered that the U.S. economy "is bumping along the bottom" under Obama, and he predicted victory in the fall.
The
two men eyed each other across hotly contested Florida, a state with 29
electoral votes, more than any other battleground in the close race for
the White House.
"When you express an
attitude that half the country considers itself victims, that somehow
they want to be dependent on government, my thinking is maybe you
haven't gotten around a lot," the president said. That was in response
to a question about Romney's recent observation that 47 percent of
Americans pay no income tax and believe they are victims and entitled to
an array of federal benefits.
Obama spoke at a town hall-style forum aired by the Spanish-language television network Univision.
For
his part, Romney was eager to move past that controversy, which has
knocked him off stride. He disclosed plans for a three-day bus tour
early next week through Ohio with running mate Paul Ryan and sought to
return the campaign focus to the economic issues that have dominated the
race all year.
At a fundraiser in Miami,
Romney looked ahead to his televised head-to-head encounters with Obama
this fall. "He's a very eloquent speaker, and so I'm sure in the
debates, as last time ... he'll be very eloquent in describing his
vision," the Republican said. "But he can't win by his words, because
his record speaks so loudly in our ears. What he has done in the last
four years is establish an economy that's bumping along the bottom."
Less
than seven weeks before Election Day, polls make the race a close one,
likely to be settled in eight or so swing states where neither man has a
solid edge. Obama has gained ground in polls in some of those states
since the completion of the Democratic National Convention two weeks
ago, while Romney has struggled with controversies of his own making
that have left Republicans frustrated at his performance as a candidate.
Still, there were fresh signs of weakness in the nation's job market as the two candidates vied for support in Florida.
The
Labor Department said the number of Americans seeking unemployment fell
only slightly last week, to a seasonally adjusted level of 382,000,
suggesting that businesses remain reluctant to add to their payrolls.
The four-week average rose for the fifth straight week to the highest
level in nearly three months.
After more than
two days of struggle, Romney seemed eager to leave the 47 percent
controversy behind as he appeared at the Univision forum Wednesday
night. `"My campaign is about the 100 percent in America," he said
firmly.
But Obama made his most extensive
comments to date on the subject since the emergence of a video showing
Romney telling donors last May that as a candidate his job wasn't to
worry about 47 percent of the country.
"Their
problem is not they're not working hard enough or they don't want to
work or they're being taxed too little or they just want to loaf around
and gather government checks," the president said."
"Are
there people that abuse the system? Yes, both at the bottom and at the
top," he added, including millionaires who he said pay no income taxes.
He said many at the low end of the income scale pay other forms of
taxes, and some who don't pay taxes are senior citizens, students,
disabled, veterans or soldiers who are stationed overseas.
"Americans work hard, and if they are not working right now I promise you they want to go to work," he said.
As
for education, the president said Romney and running mate Ryan advocate
a budget that would cut federal funds for schools by about 20 percent.
"And
you could see potentially even more teachers being laid off, working
conditions for teachers becoming even worse and potentially for more
strikes," he said.
The president added that
under his administration, "what we say to school districts all across
the country is we will provide you with more help as long as you're
being accountable, and as far as teachers go, I think they work as hard
as anybody, but we also want to make sure that they are having high
standards of performance in math and science."
Money
was not a significant issue in the Chicago strike. Mayor Rahm Emanuel
secured an extension of the school day and empowered principals to hire
the teachers they want. Teachers were able to soften a new evaluation
process and win some job protections.
The
day's campaign events showed the complexities of campaigning in Florida,
a state that is home to large populations of seniors and of Hispanics.
Romney released a new television commercial designed to appeal to both groups.
It
features Sen. Marco Rubio plugging the Republicans' plan to overhaul
Medicare, a flashpoint in the campaign that Obama says could threaten
future beneficiaries with high out-of-pocket costs.
Saying
his mother is 81, Rubio declares in the ad: "We can save Medicare
without changing hers, but only if younger Americans accept that our
Medicare will be different than our parents', when we retire in thirty
years.
"But after all they did for us, isn't that the least we can do?"
While Obama is likely to win the Hispanic vote overwhelmingly, he drew criticism in his appearances.
He
said the lack of immigration reform legislation was his biggest failure
as president and "not for a lack of trying or desire." He said he
couldn't find a single Republican to help work on the legislation. "I'm
happy to take responsibility for being naive here," the president said
when pressed to admit he broke his promise.
Univision
anchor Jorge Ramos interjected, "You promised us, and a promise is a
promise. And with all due respect, you didn't keep that promise."
Obama
drew praise from Hispanic groups earlier in the year when he announced a
policy shift that will allow some immigrants brought to the United
States illegally as children to avoid deportation.
Romney has been critical of the change, but has declined to say if he would reverse it if he wins the White House.
