President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney were back on the attack on Thursday, breaking a storm-induced campaign truce to hit the road and pound home their closing messages in the final stretch of a tight battle for the White House. With five days left until Tuesday's election, Obama resurrected his 2008 "change" slogan and said he was the only candidate who had actually fought for it. Romney criticised Obama as a lover of big government who would expand the federal bureaucracy.
National polls show the race is essentially deadlocked, and Obama and Romney will spend the final days in eight swing states that will decide who wins the 270 electoral votes needed to capture the White House. Obama made Wisconsin the first stop on a four-state swing on Thursday that will also take him to rallies in Nevada and Colorado before spending the night in Ohio. Romney planned a full day of campaigning across Virginia.
"You may be frustrated at the pace of change, but you know what I believe, you know where I stand," Obama told a crowd of 2,600 people on an airport tarmac in Wisconsin, a vital piece of his electoral strategy. "I know what change looks like because I've fought for it." Romney criticised Obama's comment in an interview aired by MSNBC on Monday that he would like to consolidate government agencies that deal with business issues in a new department under a Secretary of Business.
"I don't think adding a new chair to his cabinet will help add millions of jobs on Main Street," Romney said. Obama and Romney had put campaigning on hold for several days as the historic storm Sandy pounded the eastern seaboard, leaving a trail of destruction and forcing Obama to turn his attention to storm relief.
That pause produced some unexpected benefits for Obama, who won warm praise from Republican Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, a Romney supporter, and spent days directing federal relief efforts in a show of presidential leadership that largely sidelined Romney. But both candidates returned to political attacks on their first day back on the trail, although they struck a slightly more positive tone than usual in trying to woo undecided voters and push their own supporters to vote.
So far, Obama has planned just one visit each to Florida and Virginia, where most polls give Romney a slight lead. Romney will hit Wisconsin and Ohio on Friday, and New Hampshire, Iowa and Colorado on Saturday. Romney plans to finish up his campaign on Monday night in New Hampshire, the state where he launched his bid last year. A Reuters/Ipsos national online poll on Thursday showed the race remained effectively deadlocked, with Obama at 47 percent to Romney's 46 percent. Most national polls showed roughly similar results.