Romney back on economy in US campaign

27 Oct 2012, 4:18 pm   -   Source: AAP
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney is trying to keep voters focused on the US economy. (AAP)

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney is trying to keep voters focused on the US economy. (AAP)

US presidential challenger Mitt Romney says a win for Barack Obama would crush the country's future.

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Mitt Romney promised on Friday he would be the agent of change needed to restore US economic health, accusing President Barack Obama of a four-year policy failure that threatens to "crush our future".

With just 10 days to go until Americans vote, the Republican nominee sought to steal Obama's 2008 "change" slogan and brand him a hapless leader unable to end the slow-growth malaise that has defined the economy.

"The president's campaign falls far short of the magnitude of the times. And the presidency of the last four years has fallen far short of the promises of his last campaign," Romney told a crowd in Ames, Iowa.

Turning the tables on 2008 Obama, the 65-year-old multimillionaire private equity baron billed himself as the hope-and-change candidate and the Democratic incumbent as representing the political "status quo".

"President Obama promised to bring us together, but at every turn, he has sought to divide and demonise. He promised to cut the deficit in half, but he doubled it," Romney said.

The election is on a razor's edge, with Romney ahead in national polls but still trailing in key swing states.

Both teams are preparing cross-country travel blitzes over the final 10 days of the campaign.

But Mother Nature is intruding on their plans.

Hurricane Sandy threatens to barrel ashore along the US Mid-Atlantic coast on Monday, bringing torrential rain and heavy flooding, and potentially knocking out power to millions just a week before the election.

Fears of foul weather have already forced Romney to scrap a Sunday rally in Virginia, while Vice President Joe Biden cancelled a Saturday appearance in the same city to allow officials to focus on storm preparations.

Obama received a briefing on Friday from top emergency officials.

Aside from the threat to millions of residents, the storm could up-end election-related preparations across several states, interfere with early voting, and potentially cause problems at polling stations.

Meanwhile the government released data showing economic growth picked up steam in the third quarter, reaching an annual pace of 2 per cent.

The rate was a little better than had been expected but Romney called the news "discouraging", saying growth was less than half what had been predicted by the White House when it passed the 2009 stimulus bill.

"Slow economic growth means slow job growth and declining take-home pay. This is what four years of President Obama's policies have produced," he said.

"Americans are ready for change - for growth, for jobs, for higher take-home pay - and we're going to bring it to them."

Romney boldly predicted to a crowd of 2,500 people in Iowa that he could get the economy galloping ahead at 4 per cent growth.

Team Obama quickly attacked Romney for peppering his speech with "dishonest attacks and empty promises of change, but no new policy".

"That's because all Mitt Romney has is a one-point economic plan that he's been running on for two years: the very wealthy get to play by a very different set of rules than everyone else," said Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith.

The latest CNN/ORC poll released on Friday shows Obama ahead 50-46 per cent among likely voters in Ohio, where the campaigns have blanketed the airwaves with tens of millions of dollars in attack ads.

On Saturday, Obama was heading to the toss-up state of New Hampshire, while Romney was going to the largest battleground state of them all - Florida.

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