DAVENPORT, Iowa -- Scrambling to
hold onto his job in a tense re-election battle, President Obama
attacked Republican opponent Mitt Romney during a campaign rally here
Wednesday, the first leg in what he called "a
48-hour-fly-around-marathon campaign extravaganza."
Obama was
more forceful than usual on the stump, calling Romney an untrustworthy
double-talker and then, in more measured tones, admitting he hasn't
achieved all the goals he spelled out as a candidate in Iowa four years
ago.
Romney,
who also campaigned in Iowa on Wednesday, said Obama has no meaningful
plan to restore the nation's economy, which he said remains the central
campaign issue.
"The Obama campaign is slipping because it
can't find an agenda to help the American families. But our campaign is
growing into a movement across this country that says we're going to
get America back, we're going to get America strong," Romney said in
Cedar Rapids.
Before a crowd of 3,500 at the Mississippi Valley
Fairgrounds, Obama offered an extended riff on what he called "Romnesia"
- describing in faux-medical terms Romney's tendency, in the
president's view, to change his policies and contradict himself
depending on the audience he is speaking to.
"But don't worry," he dead-panned, "Obamacare covers pre-existing conditions."
A central peg of Obama's attack Wednesday was an attempt to undermine voters' opinions of Romney's character.
"We
joke about 'Romnesia' but all of this speaks to something that's really
important, and that is the issue of trust," he said. "There's no more
serious issue on a presidential campaign than trust. Trust matters."
He
also brandished a new 20-page blueprint for the future, a booklet
released in the wake of criticism that, with just two weeks before the
election, he has yet to spell out a detailed plan for a second term.
Des Moines Register