MOUNT VERNON, Iowa — Fresh off his more animated debate performance, President Obama joked Wednesday that he is still trying to get the hang of the face-to-face showdowns with Mitt Romney, even as the Republican nominee said Mr. Obama appears to be “running on fumes” in the run-up to Nov. 6.
Continuing the fierce line of attack he began Tuesday night, Mr. Obama told a rally in Iowa that Mr. Romney’s tax plans for the country are too “sketchy” for voters to risk putting him in the White House.
“Gov. Romney has been running around talking about his five-point plan for the economy for quite some time. And as I pointed out last night, and you guys heard yourselves, it’s really a one-point plan. … It says folks at the very top can play by their own set of rules,” Mr. Obama said, playing to big crowds in Iowa and later in Ohio, where 14,000 turned out to see him.
He and Mr. Romney picked up right where they left off in Tuesday’s town-hall-style debate, trading barbs on who would be worse for women over the next four years — Mr. Obama said the Republican would threaten access to contraception, abortion and women’s health care, while Mr. Romney said the president has ruined women’s economic prospects — and on energy and taxes.
Instant polls suggested Mr. Obama won Tuesday’s debate, though not by the overwhelming margins Mr. Romney notched in their Oct. 3 debate in Denver, which helped reset the race and propel the Republican to a lead in national polling.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney walks Oct. 17, 2012, with comedian Dennis ... more >
Democrats were energized by the president’s debate performance, praising him for finally taking a hard line against Mr. Romney.
But the Obama campaign is still struggling to reset the post-Oct. 3 debate storyline that it is struggling in some of the key states.
