Obama will bounce between battleground states during GOP convention

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will campaign in Iowa, Florida, and Virginia next week while the Republican convention is held in Tampa.

|
David Karp/AP
President Barack Obama greets well-wishers as he arrives at JFK International Airport in New York, Wednesday. Next week Obama plans to campaign in key battleground states.

Trying to steal some of the spotlight, President Barack Obama plans to campaign in three battleground states next week as Republicans gather in Florida to nominate presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Obama's campaign said Wednesday the president would hold college-themed events in Ames, Iowa, and Fort Collins, Colo., on Tuesday, the second day of the Republican convention. Obama was traveling to Charlottesville, Va., on Wednesday for a rally that will come hours before Rep. Paul Ryan's convention address.

Vice President Joe Biden was to visit Florida on Monday and Tuesday, including a stop in Tampa, the site of the GOP convention. First lady Michelle Obama, meanwhile, was scheduled to appear on "The Late Show with David Letterman" on the GOP convention's third night as part of a back-to-school media tour. Her late-night TV appearance that Wednesday will air shortly after Ryan's address and ahead of Romney's convention speech the following evening.

Presidential candidates have typically kept a low profile during the conventions of their opponents, but that has changed in recent years. During the 2008 Republican National Convention, for example, Obama campaigned in Ohio and Pennsylvania while Biden courted voters in Florida and Virginia.

By staying on the road, Obama and Biden will be able to offer a counterpoint to Republicans during their convention, which is considered an important opportunity for the GOP to introduce Romney before a national audience. Romney officials said the former Massachusetts governor was expected to hold events during the Democratic National Convention, which begins in Charlotte, N.C., on Sept. 4. The places he'll visit have not been announced.

Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the president, first lady and Biden would be "laying out the choice the American people are facing in November, cutting through some of the political chatter." She said that by sending Biden to the city where Republicans will hold their convention, "he's going to the belly of the beast."

Romney senior adviser Kevin Madden told reporters Wednesday that Biden's trip was aimed at distracting from the Democrats' economic record. He said the vice president's presence in Florida will help Republicans draw a contrast between the parties' economic visions for the country.
Associated Press writer Julie Pace in Little Rock, Ark., contributed to this report

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Obama will bounce between battleground states during GOP convention
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0822/Obama-will-bounce-between-battleground-states-during-GOP-convention
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe