Obama bus tour to focus on economy, Romney
(CBS News) In what might be the last opportunity for relaxation during this busy campaign year, both President Obama and his Republican rival Mitt Romney took a few days off the campaign trail leading up to the Fourth of July holiday. And while Romney resumes his vacation after marching in a parade in Wolfeboro, N.H., Wednesday, Mr. Obama jumps back on the campaign trail in Ohio Thursday with his first bus tour of his re-election campaign.
Just days after the Supreme Court upheld his signature law, the Affordable Care Act, the Obama campaign indicates that the president will focus on Romney and on the economy with no indication that he'll talk much about health care.
Why?
Well, even though support has increased since the Supreme Court ruling, the majority of Americans disapprove of the law, according to polls, and the president has said he would like to put the issue behind him and focus on the economy - an issue that consistently ranks as the number one issue for voters.
"He'll discuss his vision for an economy built to last, one that creates the jobs of the future and makes things that the rest of the world buys," Obama campaign national press secretary Ben LaBolt said Tuesday on a telephone briefing for reporters.
LaBolt said the president's message in the Rust Belt states will be similar to the one he outlined during a speech in Cleveland last month, where he talked about the importance of manufacturing and investing in energy and education.
But in that speech in Cleveland, the president seemed to focus more on Romney than on his own economic vision. Many of the same themes attacking Romney are expected.
"Mitt Romney's economic policy has always put maximizing his profits above anything else, even if it means refusing to bet on America and its workers," LaBolt told reporters.
Mr. Obama's two-state, two-day bus tour through Ohio and Pennsylvania will include stops in Toledo, Parma, Akron, and Sandusky, all in Ohio and events in Pittsburgh. He is using the same bus he used on his tours during a 2011 bust tour, reports CBS News' Mark Knoller, which is sanctioned by the Secret Service and has no logo. It is the same bus the Secret Service recommended for Romney as well.
The tour coincides with a new Obama campaign ad running in the battleground states that paints two different pictures of the presidential candidates. The ad suggests a Romney presidency would lead to the outsourcing of American jobs and says the president "believes in insourcing" American jobs. "Outsourcing versus insourcing, it matters," the ad says. (Watch ad below.)
Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul told CBS News that "President Obama knows he can't make a legitimate argument for another term in office, so instead he is trying to tear down his opponent. This is just the latest example of President Obama and his political machine saying or doing anything to distract from his abysmal record over the last four years."
Meantime, while Romney is taking some time away from the campaign trail, his campaign won't be invisible.
CBS News has learned that former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, both touted as possible vice presidential choices, will also travel to Ohio and Pennsylvania on Thursday and Friday to respond to counter President Obama and campaign on behalf of Romney.