WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama tried Thursday to build on the lead he has started to take in the most important battleground states that will decide the November election, promoting what he called a “new economic patriotism” as Republican challenger Mitt Romney prepared for their crucial first debate next week. In a two-minute ad aimed at seven states that don't reliably vote Democrat or Republican, Obama promotes an economic plan he says will create 1 million manufacturing jobs, cut oil imports and hire thousands of new teachers. The ad is set to air in the two most important of those battleground states, Ohio and Florida, as well as New Hampshire, Virginia, Iowa, Nevada and Colorado. All but New Hampshire and Virginia offer the increasingly popular choice of early voting, which started in the first state, Iowa, on Thursday. It is likely that Romney must win either Ohio or Florida to take the election, but the most recent polls show Obama edging ahead in both states. The president is not chosen by popular vote but in state-by-state contests. Polls show Obama is widening his lead in key states amid backlash from a video leaked last week in which Romney disparages the 47 percent of Americans who don't pay federal income tax as government-dependent Obama supporters who won't take responsibility for their own lives. The new polls were conducted after the video became public. Obama's campaign was reveling in the latest polling but trying to crush any overconfidence. “If we need to pass out horse blinders to all of our staff, we will do that,” campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. The latest round of economic reports can help keep confidence in check. Thursday's mixed reports showed the weekly number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits was at a nine-week low, but the economy grew at an even more sluggish pace in the April-June quarter than previously believed. The country's $16 trillion deficit also is a shadow, and the Romney campaign continues to bring it up. Campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul responded to Obama's new ad: “In the time it takes his latest ad to run, our national debt grows by at least another $5 million.” On Thursday, the two candidates were campaigning in the same state for the third straight day, this time in Virginia. The simultaneous visits follow an all-day duel Wednesday in Ohio, where Romney declared he can do more than Obama to improve the lives of average people. Obama said a challenger who calls half the nation “victims” was unlikely to be of much help. Meanwhile, new Republican-leaning independent groups have entered the presidential advertising fight. The commercials, aimed at voters who supported Obama in 2008 but are now undecided, join those from the campaigns and outside groups targeting the narrow map of battleground states.— AP
