Romney criticizes Obama's early response to Egypt embassy attack

Ryan and Vice President Joe Biden will also campaign in Ohio on Wednesday.

Tens of millions of voters in most parts of the United States are not being wooed directly, as their states are already considered to tilt clearly toward Obama or Romney. Obama appears to have more favorable paths to the required 270 electoral votes he needs for a second term, but in a shaky economy, he is in a hard fight.

With 55 days left until the election, Obama and Romney were keeping a steady pace of post-convention events, but hardly one that screamed urgency.

Romney spent much of his Tuesday in the air, flying from the Chicago area to Reno, Nev., for a speech on the legacy of the Sept. 11 attacks before moving onto Florida.

His morning event in Jacksonville is his only scheduled one Wednesday.

Obama devoted his Tuesday to Sept. 11 ceremonies in Washington on a day that was stripped of overt campaigning but clearly offered political messages from both candidates. On Wednesday afternoon, Obama was going to Las Vegas for one economy-themed rally at night before moving on to Colorado for an event there Thursday. Colorado and Nevada are key early-voting states.

Romney was splitting Florida duty with his wife, Ann, who was holding her own rally in Largo; former President Bill Clinton, meanwhile, was to campaign for Obama in Orlando.

The 11th anniversary of the 2001 attacks on America compelled Obama, Romney and their campaign teams to hold off on direct confrontations. Both sides yanked negative TV ads. And both Romney and Obama offered extensive praise and expressions of sympathy for those who died in the attacks and for their loved ones.

Yet Romney, in address to a meeting of the National Guard, indirectly but clearly drew distinctions with Obama. After declaring that the day was not the proper moment to address differences with the president, Romney took issue with threatened cuts in defense and the handling of disability claims and called for more assertive international leadership.

"I wish I could say the world is less dangerous now," he said.

Obama, for his part, offered election-year reminders that "al-Qaida's leadership has been devastated and Osama bin Laden will never threaten us again."

Said the president, "Our country is safer and our people are resilient."