Obama: Romney a 'rubber stamp' for right

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Plunging into his campaign for a new term, President Barack Obama tore into Mitt Romney on Saturday as eager to "rubber stamp" a conservative Republican congressional agenda to cut taxes for the rich, reduce spending on education and Medicare, and enhance power that big banks and insurers have over consumers.

Romney and his "friends in Congress think the same bad ideas will lead to a different result, or they're just hoping you won't remember what happened the last time you tried it their way," the president told thousands of cheering partisans at what aides said was his first full-fledged political rally of the election year.

Six months before Election Day, the polls point to a close race between Obama and Romney, with the economy the overriding issue as the nation struggles to recover from the worst recession since the 1930s. Unemployment remains stubbornly high at 8.1 percent nationally, although it has receded slowly and unevenly since peaking several months into the president's term. The good news of the most recent dip was offset because it was due mostly to discouraged jobless giving up their search for work.

Romney has staked his candidacy on his ability to create jobs, but Obama said his rival was merely doing the bidding of the conservative power brokers in Congress and has little understanding of the struggles of average Americans.

"Why else would he want to cut his own taxes while raising them for 18 million Americans," Obama said of his multimillionaire opponent.

While Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, has yet to flesh out a detailed economic program, he and Republicans in Congress want to extend all the tax cuts that are due to expire at year's end. Obama and most Democrats want to let taxes rise for upper-income earners.

The president's campaign chose Ohio State University, the biggest college campus in a perennial swing state, and Virginia Commonwealth University for the back-to-back rallies. In 2008, Obama won Ohio while reversing decades of Republican dominance in Virginia. Since then, Virginia has swung back toward the GOP in statewide elections.

Romney had no public events Saturday after spending much of the week campaigning in Virginia and Pennsylvania, another swing state.