Las Vegas, Nevada, Oct 18: Republican candidates sharpened their attacks on President Barack Obama as they gathered for a debate Tuesday night in a key Western battleground state where they hope to capitalize on growing discontent over the sour economy.
Republicans are still shuffling for a clear front-runner to challenge Obama, who took Nevada by a comfortable 12 percentage point margin in 2008 but now has to answer for a statewide unemployment rate that has grown in recent months to 13.4 percent—well above the U.S. average.
Obama, for his part, has embarked on a campaign style-bus tour of North Carolina and Virginia, mocking congressional Republicans for rejecting his $447 billion jobs bill that combines tax cuts and new spending in an effort to jump start the stagnant economy. Obama won the two traditionally Republican-leaning southern states in 2008 on his campaign's ability to boost turnout among young people and black voters.
In North Carolina, the president directed his most pointed remarks at Senate Republicans, who last week blocked action on the jobs bill.
“Essentially they said no to you,” Obama told a supportive crowd outside Asheville. Noting that Republicans will now get a chance to vote on elements of his jobs agenda one by one, he said: “Maybe they just couldn't understand the whole thing all at once. So we're going to break it up into bite-size pieces.”
Senate Democrats unveiled the first individual bill taken from Obama's jobs package, which would spend $30 billion to create or save education jobs and $5 billion to do the same for police and firefighters. Republicans are likely to block the bill.
Republicans denounced the bus trip as nothing more than a taxpayer-funded campaign trip through two must-win states to try to bolster Obama's standing for the 2012 election.
Obama's poll numbers are down in both Virginia and North Carolina, languishing in the mid- to low-forties in recent surveys. The numbers mirror his approval ratings nationally. Obama's campaign is pressing to hold both Southern states, even choosing to hold next year's Democratic convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Most Republican candidates, meanwhile, were in Nevada making appearances and speeches this week at the Western Republican Leadership Conference.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney—often held up as the putative front runner despite being seen as unappealing to the party's conservative base—planned a campaign party Monday.
Former pizza executive Herman Cain, who has overtaken Romney in some recent polls of Republican voters, had plans to visit several local Republican groups throughout the week.
Libertarian Republican Rep. Ron Paul was using the week to present parts of his policy agenda, calling for $1 trillion in cuts to the federal budget Monday and saying he would eliminate five Cabinet departments upon taking office.
No matter who the Republicans nominate, the party is certain to dump piles of money and tons of manpower into Nevada to try to prevent another Obama victory here.
If Romney is the nominee, he'd benefit from a population of fellow Mormons in the state. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a conservative favorite, could conceivably have the support of some segment of the state's large Hispanic population.
Democrats are preparing for a tough fight regardless of who Obama faces.
They point to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's hard fought re-election victory earlier this year as proof that a Democrat can be re-elected in Nevada despite the economic turmoil. They note the growth among Democrats, who now have a 101,633 voter advantage statewide. And they hold out hope that the robust Hispanic population here—they make up 15 percent of the electorate—will tilt toward Democrats.
But Reid faced a deeply flawed ultraconservative tea party candidate in Sharron Angle. And the state now has a Hispanic governor in Brian Sandoval, a Republican, who could influence this pivotal constituency.
