Obama, Romney spar over China, jobs

WASHINGTON -- Competing for white working-class voters, President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney squared off Saturday on China and accused each other of backing policies that would move American jobs overseas.

"In 2008, candidate Obama promised to take China 'to the mat,' " Romney said in his weekly podcast. "But since then, he's let China run all over us."

Obama's team, in turn, argued that Romney has profited from and outsourced jobs to China. The president also rolled out a new 60-second, $6 million ad campaign that casts Romney as risky for the nation's recovery.

Seven weeks before Election Day, both candidates took a rare break from campaigning even as they intensified their efforts on the economy, through the prism of China, with Obama sensing an opportunity to undercut his Republican rival's strength and Romney refusing to cede ground.

The maneuvering came as a new poll showed Romney having lost his long-held advantage on the economy to the president even as the overall contest remains tight.

For Romney, emphasizing China was a way to refocus his campaign on voters' No. 1 issue and the central one of his campaign after a difficult week dominated by foreign policy, a weak spot for the Republican, in the wake of unrest at U.S. embassies in the Middle East. The shift to China also indicated Romney's need to shore up support among the working-class voters he needs to turn out in big numbers come November.

Obama's campaign said it welcomed the fight on China, an issue where it argues Romney has numerous vulnerabilities. It released a new Web video Saturday in which Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter said Romney holds investments in Chinese companies and outsourced jobs to China while running the private equity firm Bain Capital.

Obama's quick counter underscored the importance of holding on to his recent gains in Ohio, a swing state with a large manufacturing base where many blame China for depressing the state's industry.

China, and through it the economy, has become Romney's core argument in battleground states.

Polls in several of the most contested states show the president with a slight edge.

Democrats say Obama has gained an advantage on the economy in part because Romney hasn't laid out specific plans for what he would do differently. They see signs that voters, even those who say their economic situation isn't better today, believe it will be in a year or two, making it more likely they will want to stick with Obama.

Romney's campaign advisers say Obama hasn't done anything to change the dynamic on the economy and claim any Obama gains are in states that would back the president in the fall anyway.

The economy remains weak. Unemployment dropped to 8.1 percent last month, but only because more people stopped looking for work.