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| President Barack Obama gestures while speaking about the choice facing women in the upcoming election, Friday, Oct. 19, 2012, at a campaign event at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. |
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Unemployment rates fell last month in nearly all of the battleground states that will determine the presidential winner, giving President Barack Obama fresh fodder to argue that voters should stick with him in an election focused squarely on the economy.
The
declines, however, were modest. It's unknown whether they will do much
to sway undecided voters who are considering whether to back Republican
Mitt Romney or give the Democratic president four more years.
The
statewide data released by the Labor Department on Friday provide one
of the last comprehensive looks at the health of the U.S. economy ahead
of Election Day, now a little more than two weeks away. Voters will get
one more update on the national unemployment rate just days before the
election. But the state reports matter greatly to the Obama and Romney
campaigns, which believe the public's impressions of the economy are
shaped mostly by local conditions rather than national ones.
In
Ohio, perhaps the most crucial battleground state for both Obama and
Romney, the unemployment rate ticked down last month to 7 percent from
7.2 percent, below the national average of 7.8 percent.
"I
knew a lot of people who were laid off and now they're working," said
firefighter Matt Sparling, an Obama supporter from Parma Heights, Ohio.
"So something good is happening here."
Obama's
team is banking on the president getting credit for improvements in
Ohio's economy, particularly for the bailout of the auto industry, which
has deep roots in the Midwestern swing state. But Romney has
opportunities to run on the economy in Ohio, too. The state actually
lost nearly 13,000 jobs in September and the drop in the unemployment
rate was probably due in part to people dropping out of the job market.
The
president didn't mention the state jobless numbers during a campaign
stop Friday in Virginia, one of two battleground states where the rate
didn't drop. It held steady at the relatively low level of 5.9 percent.
Spirited
on other topics, Obama quipped in a raucous rally at George Mason
University that a case of "Romnesia" was preventing his opponent from
remembering his own stances on health care, energy and a slate of
policies.
"He's forgetting what his own
positions are - and he's betting that you will, too," Obama said. "We've
got to name this condition that he's going through. I think it's called
Romnesia."
Romney was headlining a rally in Florida Friday evening after spending much of the day in New York meeting with advisers.
The
candidates were stepping off the campaign trail this weekend for debate
preparations ahead of Monday's third and final face-off in Boca Raton,
Fla. Romney was staying in South Florida to practice, while Obama and
top aides headed to Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, to
prepare for the foreign policy-focused debate.
International
issues competed with the economy for voters' attention Friday, as fresh
questions arose over what the White House knew when about the deadly
attack on Americans in Libya.
Republican vice
presidential candidate Paul Ryan accused Obama of stonewalling, telling
Milwaukee radio station WTMJ that the president was refusing to answer
even basic questions.
"His response has been inconsistent, it's been misleading," Ryan said.
Romney
and Ryan have criticized the administration for saying at first that
the attack was a spontaneous mob reaction to an anti-Muslim video on
YouTube when they now acknowledge it was a terrorist attack. U.S.
officials told The Associated Press that the CIA station chief in Libya
reported to Washington within 24 hours of the attack to say there was
evidence it was carried out by militants, although it's unclear who
received that information right away.
Despite increased focus on Libya, the economy remains the No. 1 election issue for most voters.
Friday's
jobs report showed the unemployment rate falling slightly in seven
battleground states: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina,
Ohio and Wisconsin. Rates held steady at 5.7 percent in New Hampshire
and 5.9 percent in Virginia. Unemployment in both states has long been
well below the national average.
Nevada's 11.8 percent rate is the highest nationally. Iowa has the lowest battleground state rate, with 5.2 percent out of work.
Obama
has staked his re-election prospects on the notion that the economic
crisis he inherited is easing. He's been backed by positive trends for a
handful of recent economic indicators, as well as polls showing the
public's view of the economy is improving.
But
millions of Americans are still out of work, giving Romney an
opportunity to cast the president as ineffective in solving the
country's economic troubles. Romney, too, has plenty of economic data to
back up his argument, including disappointing earnings reports Friday
from major companies, including Microsoft and McDonald's.
Both
campaigns say the last round of data released ahead of Election Day is
unlikely to sway voters who have been living the reality of the economic
downturn and weak recovery for more than four years.
John
Patterson, 25, a recent college graduate from North Carolina, said he
doesn't have to look at unemployment numbers to know things aren't good
in his home state. He's sent out resumes and had a few interviews but is
still unemployed.
Patterson voted for Obama four years ago, but says he's not sure he'll do the same this time around.
"Things haven't really changed, have they?" he said. "I mean, too many people are still out of work."
Back
in Ohio, Diana Huddleston said the falling unemployment rate has done
little to help her personal economic situation. Her husband lost his
jobs a few years back when an aluminum producer in the region cut back.
He eventually found work as a dishwasher, Huddleston said, but that
position comes with much lower pay.
Huddleston says she doesn't plan to vote in the presidential election because "nothing is going to change here."
