Obama touts 'economic patriotism' in 2-minute ad

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is pitching a broad economic argument to voters before next week's debate with Republican opponent Mitt Romney, buying TV time in seven battleground states to promote a "new economic patriotism."

In a two-minute ad, Obama looks into the camera as he promotes an economic plan he says will create 1 million manufacturing jobs, cut oil imports and hire thousands of new teachers.

The ad set to air in New Hampshire, Virginia, Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Nevada and Colorado comes as both men shadow each other while looking for votes in a closely contested race. It was not running in North Carolina, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, underscoring the states where the president's campaign contends the election is truly being fought.

On Thursday, the two candidates are scheduled to campaign in the same state for the third straight day, this time in Virginia, a critical battleground in the Nov. 6 election. Romney is to appear in suburban Washington for a veterans' event, while Obama speaks in Virginia Beach.

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 scoffed that a challenger who calls half the nation "victims" was unlikely to be of much help.

Amid the hunt for working-class voters, Romney released a new ad Thursday aimed at coal miners. It included video of Obama as a candidate in 2008 saying he would support laws to force emitters of greenhouse gases to buy allowances at auction. "So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them," Obama says in the ad.

Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul responded to Obama's two-minute ad by arguing that the GOP nominee can deliver a recovery, while Obama has mishandled the economy during his four years in office. "In the time it takes his latest ad to run, our national debt grows by at least another $5 million," Saul said in a statement.

Saul cited the Commerce Department's announcement Thursday of sluggish economic growth in the last quarter as evidence of Obama's economic failings. The growth rate was lowered from a previous estimate of 1.7 percent to 1.3 percent for the April-June quarter because of the severe drought that reduced farm production in the Midwest.

Meanwhile, new Republican-leaning independent groups have entered the presidential advertising fray as polling suggests Romney's campaign may be losing ground against Obama in key states such as Ohio and Florida.

The commercials, aimed at voters who supported Obama in 2008 but are now undecided, join those from the campaigns and outside groups swamping a narrow and possibly shrinking map of competitive states in the fast-moving presidential contest. Americans for Job Security launched an $8.7 million ad buy in six battleground states, while the Ending Spending Action Fund, a new conservative group bankrolled by billionaire Joe Ricketts, was set to debut a $10 million, four-state ad campaign on Thursday.

Polls show Obama widening his lead in several key states amid backlash from a leaked video in which Romney disparages the 47 percent of Americans who don't pay federal income tax as government-dependent Obama supporters who see themselves as victims and won't take responsibility for their own lives.

Obama's campaign was reveling in the latest public polling but trying to crush any sense of overconfidence. "If we need to pass out horse blinders to all of our staff, we will do that," campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Wednesday.

Romney went after working-class voters at three stops in Ohio, while Obama rallied college crowds at Bowling Green and Kent State. Early voting in Ohio begins next week.