As the race for the White House continues, U.S. President Barack Obama
and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney are campaigning in key
battleground states Friday.
President Obama is holding a rally in the eastern state of Virginia,
while Romney has a campaign event in the western state of Nevada.
Public opinion polls show Obama leading Romney in Virginia and most of
the other so-called swing states expected to decide the November 6
election.
The president has also pulled ahead of his rival in campaign funds, with
nearly $89 million to spend in the campaign's final stretch compared to
Romney's $50 million.
In an appeal to older voters, Obama is also speaking via satellite
Friday to a meeting of AARP, a lobbying group for people aged 50 and
older.
On
Thursday, Romney worked to overcome recent blows to his campaign by
promoting himself as the man to change Washington. Romney is trying to
reverse damage done by a secretly-taped video that surfaced this week
showing him saying that 47 percent of Americans, who he said will vote
for Obama "no matter what," believe they are "victims" entitled to
government support.
Seizing on President Obama's remarks in an interview Thursday that you
cannot "change Washington from the inside" and "can only change it from
the outside," Romney said he "can" and "will" change Washington and will
"get the job done from the inside." He said "Republicans and Democrats
will come together."
President Obama had said in an interview on U.S. Spanish-language
network Univision that in a second term he would concentrate on engaging
with the American people so that they can pressure lawmakers to move
issues forward.
Many of the president's initiatives have been blocked by the
Republican-dominated House of Representatives.
