Lynn Armstrong Coffin and Eric Papalini, not shown, of PunchingPoliticians.com hold puppets of Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and President Obama boxing before a campaign rally at the Ringling Museum of Art Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012, in Sarasota, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Lynn Armstrong Coffin and Eric Papalini, not shown, of PunchingPoliticians.com hold puppets of Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and President Obama boxing before a campaign rally at the Ringling Museum of Art Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012, in Sarasota, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney arrives in West Palm Beach, Fla., for private campaign fundraising events, Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
President Barack Obama greets people on the tarmac as he arrives at Tampa International Airport on Air Force One, Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012, in Tampa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney campaigns at the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Fla., Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
President Barack Obama pops a french fry into his mouth as he visits with students at OMG! Burgers, Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Now it's Mitt Romney who wants to be the candidate of change.
Romney is seizing on President Barack Obama's comment that "you can't change Washington from the inside." Grasping for a way to right his campaign and appeal to independents, the Republican nominee says he has what it takes to end the nasty partisanship in the nation's capital.
"I can change Washington," Romney said Thursday. "I will change Washington. We'll get the job done from the inside. Republicans and Democrats will come together."
Romney was expected to press the issue again Friday during a campaign rally in Nevada, a state hard hit by the nation's housing and unemployment woes.
Obama, who ran for president in 2008 on a pledge to fix Washington's combative tone, said in an interview that he had come to the conclusion "you can't change Washington from the inside. You can only change it from the outside." Adding that he wanted people to speak out on issues, he went on to say: "So something that I'd really like to concentrate on in my second term is being in a much more constant conversation with the American people so that they can put pressure on Congress to help move some of these issues forward."
After Romney focused on the "can't change Washington from the inside" segment of Obama's remarks, the president's campaign countered quickly by noting that Romney said just that in 2007 when he was running for the 2008 Republican nomination: "I don't think you change Washington from the inside. I think you change it from the outside."
Both candidates were campaigning Friday in battleground states, with Romney stumping and raising cash in Nevada and Obama holding a rally in Woodbridge, Va., just a short trip from the White House. Obama won both states in 2008.
Polling shows the race tight in both states, though Obama appears to have an edge in Virginia. Democrats with access to internal polling say Obama is up 3 or 4 percentage points over Romney in Virginia, a slimmer margin than in some recent public polling.
Obama has also pulled ahead of Romney in cash on hand, a key measure of a campaign's financial strength. The Democrat has more than $88 million to spend in the campaign's final weeks while Romney has just over $50 million at his disposal.
Romney's campaign is seeking to regroup after a rough stretch that included the emergence of a video in which he tells wealthy donors at a private fundraiser that 47 percent of Americans pay no income tax and that they believe they are victims and entitled to an array of federal benefits. Obama has cast those remarks as a sign that Romney is out of touch with most Americans.
"When you express an attitude that half the country considers itself victims, that somehow they want to be dependent on government, my thinking is maybe you haven't gotten around a lot," Obama said Thursday during a forum on Univision, the Spanish-language TV network.
Romney is also facing criticism from some in his own party that he's spending too much time raising money and not enough time talking to voters in the eight or so battleground states that will decide the election. In response, his campaign added a Sunday rally in Colorado to his schedule and announced a three-day Ohio bus tour that kicks off Monday.
The president will campaign this weekend in Wisconsin, a state Romney is trying to put in play. Republicans are hoping the addition of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan to the GOP ticket will help them claim victory there ? or at least force Obama to spend time and money to hold the state.
Even with Election Day under seven weeks away, voters across the country are already casting ballots. By week's end, early voting will be under way in two dozen states.
Obama was also making a play for older voters Friday by speaking via satellite to an AARP convention and taking questions from the group's members. The president's campaign is seeking to gain an advantage with seniors and voters nearing retirement by attacking the Republican ticket's plan for Medicare.
The popular federal entitlement for seniors was the focus of a new television ad from the Obama campaign. The ad, scheduled to air Friday in Colorado, Florida and Iowa, presents a Democratic refrain ? that Romney and Ryan would turn Medicare into a voucher program that could raise seniors' health costs by up to $6,400 a year.
Independent groups have said that a House Republican budget proposal led by Ryan could lead to higher costs for older Americans. But exactly how much is far from clear. The ad relies on the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal-leaning think tank, for the figure it cites.
Supporters of the Ryan plan say competition among private insurance providers could wring waste out of the system and bring down costs.
___
Peoples reported from Palm Beach, Fla.
Associated Pressaptera national defense authorization act national defense authorization act seven days in utopia seven days in utopia big 10 championship game big 10 championship game
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