Romney and other Republicans have tried to blame Obama alone for the defense cuts, especially in Vir

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VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney campaigned in each other s shadow for a third straight day, hunting for votes already beginning to be cast and arguing over who would be the better job creator.
The president rallied voters hotels in orange beach in Virginia Beach while Romney told veterans in Springfield, to the north, that across-the-board defense spending cuts scheduled to take effect in January under a deal Obama made with Congress are a kind of a gun-to-your-head opportunity.
The candidates debate spread across the airways in Virginia and a handful of other swing states where the campaign is being waged in its final days. Obama released the latest in a series of new ads his campaign has produced featuring a secret hotels in orange beach recording of Romney saying that 47 percent of Americans believe they are victims and are dependent hotels in orange beach on government. The latest spot features audio of Romney speaking over photos of people who might fit into that 47 percent category: women with children, hotels in orange beach veterans, Hispanics and working-class women.
hotels in orange beach Obama also released a lengthy two-minute commercial in which he speaks into the camera and describes a new economic patriotism that he says will create 1 million manufacturing jobs, cut oil imports and hire thousands of new teachers.
Both ads are set to air in New Hampshire, Virginia, Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Nevada and Colorado. hotels in orange beach They were not running in North Carolina, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, underscoring the states where the president s campaign contends the election is truly being fought.
It s game day in America, Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters traveling with the president. hotels in orange beach She noted that Thursday marked the start of early voting in Iowa and that Virginia was sending out absentee ballots.
Obama drove home his commercial s message at the rally, promoting the new economic patriotism as rooted in a belief that a growing economy begins with a strong middle class. I don t think we can get very far with leaders who write off half the nation as a bunch of victims, who never take responsibility for their own lives, Obama said.
Romney argued Obama doesn t deserve another chance to improve the economy, pointing to the Commerce Department hotels in orange beach s announcement hours earlier of sluggish economic growth in the last quarter. The growth rate was lowered from a previous estimate of 1.7 percent to 1.3 percent for April-June because of the severe drought that reduced farm production in the Midwest.
In Virginia, where the military hotels in orange beach is crucial, Romney said the pending defense hotels in orange beach spending cuts would devastate the military and eliminate jobs in the state. He said it is unthinkable that the U.S. would cut its commitment to the military in a world that remains troubled and dangerous.
Romney and other Republicans have tried to blame Obama alone for the defense cuts, especially in Virginia. But the GOP overwhelmingly backed the reductions when Congress passed the legislation in August 2011.
Amid both campaigns hunt for working-class voters, Romney released a new ad Thursday aimed at coal miners. It included video of Obama as a candidate in 2008 saying he would support laws to force emitters of greenhouse gases to buy allowances at auction. So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it s just that it will bankrupt them, Obama says in the ad.
Meanwhile, new Republican-leaning independent groups have entered the presidential advertising fray as polling suggests Romney hotels in orange beach s campaign may be losing ground against Obama in key states such as Ohio and Florida.
The commercials, aimed at voters who supported Obama in 2008 but are now undecided, join those from the campaigns and outside groups swamping hotels in orange beach a narrow and possibly shrinking map of competitive states in the fast-moving presidential contest. Americans hotels in orange beach for Job Security launched an $8.7 million ad buy in six battleground states, while the Ending Spending Action Fund, a new conservative group bankrolled by billionaire Joe Ricketts, hotels in orange beach was set to debut a $10 million, four-state ad campaign on Thursday.
Obama supporters also are working to keep Romney s 47 percent comments alive. Democratic super PAC Priorities USA Action and a political group tied to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees released a radio ad in Ohio and Virginia airing the remarks. The ad, part of a $1.25 million radio buy, tells listeners Romney s just not looking out for us.