VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney shadowed each other for a second-consecutive day in a battleground state, appealing for votes by arguing the other is pushing failed policies.
Taxes, energy independence, education, jobs and debt were the main issues both candidates hit Thursday in Virginia, one of about 10 states their campaigns say will swing the Nov. 6 election.
In an appearance before military veterans in Springfield, a suburb of Washington, Romney said the struggling economy is weakening the country and criticized Obama over automatic budget cuts — including to defense — set to take effect in January.
The “idea of cutting our military commitment by a trillion dollars over this decade is unthinkable and devastating,” Romney said at an American Legion Post.
“When I become president of the United States, we will stop it. I will not cut our commitment to our military.”
Obama said his challenger represents a return to the policies of his predecessor, former President George W. Bush. “We just tried this,” he said at rally at Farm Bureau Live, an amphitheater in Virginia Beach. “It didn’t work then.”
Thursday’s events in Virginia, which Obama won in 2008, followed multiple stops by both candidates Wednesday in Ohio, another battleground, where they accused each other of being too weak to confront China on trade and lacking plans to create jobs.
Obama and Romney are to meet Wednesday in Denver for the first of three debates.
By the time of their third session Oct. 22, early voting will already be under way in six of the nine top battleground states, adding a new urgency to the campaigning.
Romney repeated his criticism of the automatic cuts to federal spending starting in January that Obama and Republican congressional leaders agreed to last year as part of a battle over the U.S. debt.
Those cuts include defense spending reductions of $500 billion, and have been criticized as a risk to national security by Republicans and Democrats alike.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the cuts would be a “disaster.”
Romney said the automatic cuts were proposed by the White House and created a “kind of a gun to your head” arrangement for federal spending.
The proposed military cuts would mean 136,000 lost jobs in Virginia, he said.
“The world is not a safe place,” he said. “It remains dangerous.”
Obama focused his attacks on Romney’s tax proposals, saying the Republican plan would cut taxes for the wealthiest at the expense of programs that aid middleclass income.
“The question is whose plan is better for you,” Obama said.
Obama added a new line to his standard campaign speech that is part of a new broadcast advertisement by his campaign and aimed at promoting his push to raise taxes for the wealthiest Americans.
“During campaign season, you always hear a lot about patriotism,” Obama said.
“Well, you know what? It’s time for a new economic patriotism” that promotes a “thriving middle class.”
Obama four years ago was the first Democrat since Lyndon Johnson in 1964 to win Virginia’s presidential vote.
In Tennessee, vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan said Thursday that he wants the Republican campaign message to be so detailed and compelling that Romney will be elected president “by acclamation.”
The Wisconsin congressman said at a $1,000-perplate fundraiser at a Knoxville hotel that the GOP message contrasts with what he called the divisive tactics of Obama.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s chief operating officer said Thursday that the business lobbying organization opposes Romney’s pledge to designate China as a currency manipulator if he is elected president.
“Picking fights with trading partners probably isn’t the best way to have expansion of the global trading system,” David Chavern, also the Chamber’s executive vice president, said at a Bloomberg Government breakfast in Washington.
“Governor Romney shares the Chamber’s goal of expanding the global trading system,” Amanda Henneberg, spokesman for the Romney campaign, said in an e-mail.
“But such a system will only survive, and benefit American businesses and workers, if all participants play by the rules and face serious consequences for cheating.”
In other developments, billionaire George Soros is committing $1 million to Priorities USA Action, the super political action committee supporting Obama, two people with knowledge of the decision said Thursday.
A longtime political adviser to Soros, Michael Vachon, made the announcement at a luncheon Thursday hosted by the Democracy Alliance, a group of liberal donors who have already invested heavily in building grass-roots organizations and research institutes.
Soros will also give an additional $500,000 to two super PACs backing congressional Democrats.
Other donors at the lunch were expected to commit between at least $10 million more to Democratic super PACs.
Information for this article was contributed by Brian Wingfield, Sanford Reback, Caitlin Webber and Hans Nichols of Bloomberg News; by Erik Schelzig of The Associated Press; and by Nicholas Confessore of The New York Times.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 09/28/2012