President Obama, Mitt Romney trying to refocus on economy Friday

RENO, Nev. — The presidential candidates tried to put aside politically risky talk of gay rights Friday and return to Americans' top worry, the economy, in two states critical to the hopes of President Barack Obama and his rival Mitt Romney.

Obama planned to talk about how to help homeowners trying to avoid foreclosure in hard-hit Nevada, while Romney was talking jobs in North Carolina — more evidence that each views the sluggish economic recovery the key issue in November's election.

For both, it was a day to move past the week's back-and-forth on gay marriage, punctuated by Obama's announcement that he now supports it. Romney, who reiterated his opposition to same-sex marriage repeatedly, was distracted by a news report that led him to apologize for decades ago mistreating a high school classmate who was gay.

Romney will navigate a trickier course on Saturday, when he's giving the commencement address at an evangelical Christian university in Virginia, a long-planned speech designed to help him reconcile with religious conservatives nervous about his record on social issues like abortion and gay rights.

The presumptive Republican nominee planned to blend social and economic themes by telling Liberty University's graduates that strong families are central to a strong economy.

"America needs your talent and your energy, all the more now that our country's in a tough spot," he says in prepared remarks for his speech at the school founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell. "In the most practical, everyday terms, the best cultural assets are values as basic as personal responsibility, the dignity of hard work, and, above all, the commitments of family."

Romney also will tell the graduates to cherish their families, saying he "never once regretted missing any experience or opportunity in business" to be with his wife and five sons. Missed moments with your children "don't come again," he said.

The speech at Liberty is a Republican tradition as well as a chance for Romney to repair what's been a frayed connection with the evangelical Christian right. John McCain gave the 2006 commencement address on his path to winning the 2008 Republican nomination. President George W. Bush addressed graduates while he was serving in the White House.

"He will do better if he runs toward and not away from the issues of life and marriage," said Maggie Gallagher, the co-founder of the National Organization for Marriage. "Everyone says that the economy is the main issue. The question is whether a candidate seems to be embarrassed by his own views on life and marriage or tries to run from them, or if he can eloquently defend them."

Still, Republican leaders are warning activists against making the gay marriage issue more prominent than Obama's stewardship of the economy.

"I'm gonna stay focused on jobs, thanks," House Speaker John Boehner said the day after Obama's pronouncement on gay marriage. "The president can talk about it all he wants."

Romney took a similar approach Friday in Charlotte, N.C. He avoided mentioning social issues, even though North Carolina voters on Tuesday strengthened the state's ban on same-sex marriages. Instead, he focused his remarks on Obama and the slow speed of economic recovery.

"One of the reasons is that we have a president who has installed some of the old liberal policies of the past," Romney said.

Obama, meanwhile, was to talk about preventing home foreclosures during remarks in Reno, Nev., on Friday, the day after a gala dinner at the home of George Clooney, where 150 members of the Hollywood set paid $40,000 to eat roasted duckling and lamb and beef cheeks with the president and some of his top aides.