NEW YORK — Republican Mitt Romney is trying to shift the focus of the presidential campaign away from anti-American violence overseas and back to the economy, accusing President Barack Obama of ignoring Chinese trade violations and pointing to a new Federal Reserve effort to bolster the economy as evidence of Obama’s weak policies.
Obama, campaigning in the aftermath of the death of four Americans at a consulate in Libya, is playing up his role as commander in chief, vowing that “no act of terror will go unpunished.”
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Following a quick fundraising trip to New York, Romney was headed Friday to Ohio, which has been essential to any Republican seeking the White House. Obama carried the perennial battleground state in 2008, but it remains in the toss-up category and could again play a pivotal role in the election.
Obama returned to Washington late Thursday after a two-day trip to Nevada and Colorado and planned to wrap himself in Olympic glory on Friday, meeting with members of the U.S. Olympics and Paralympics teams at the White House. Romney has reminded voters of his work leading the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics out of financial turmoil, while Obama has embraced the all-American images of the Olympics team, cheering on their success during rallies last month.
In a Virginia suburb of Washington, Romney returned to his emphasis on the economy, promising to crack down on China. His campaign released a new television ad claiming that China has outpaced the United States in new manufacturing jobs since Obama took office.
The White House responded, saying that all of the actions the administration has initiated at the World Trade Organization to rein in China have been successful. Obama’s campaign said Obama has brought as many cases challenging China trade policies in 3 1/2 years as former President George W. Bush did in eight.
Romney also seized on the Fed’s new attempt to jumpstart the economy, saying it showed that Obama’s economic agenda has not succeeded. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke outlined plans to spend $40 billion a month to buy mortgage bonds and keep short-term interest rates at record lows through mid-2015 as a way to revitalize a slow-growing economy with an unemployment rate of 8.1 percent.
“What Bernanke’s doing is saying that what the president’s saying is wrong,” Romney said in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America.” ”The president’s saying the economy’s making progress, coming back. Bernanke’s saying, ‘No, it’s not. I’ve got to print more money.”
Following the killing of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya, Obama said in Golden, Colo., that his administration would do “whatever is necessary to protect all Americans who are serving abroad. He vowed that “those who killed our fellow Americans” will be brought to justice.
Romney spent his Thursday evening raising cash in the wealthy neighborhoods of Long Island, N.Y., first at the home of hedge fund manager Lee Ainslie, and then at the home of Robert Rosenthal, chairman of an investment banking firm. He was to have another fundraiser in New York on Friday morning before heading to Ohio. Romney’s campaign had no immediate details on his cash haul from the New York swing.
Republicans also awaited an Obama administration report, expected to be released Friday, on how it would implement $110 billion in across-the-board cuts in defense and domestic spending due to take effect Jan. 2. The threatened cuts would kick in if Congress and the White House, by year’s end, fail to reach a deal to cut the budget deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next decade.
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