Romney tries to keep focus on jobs

Republican Mitt Romney rode a bus through eastern Pennsylvania Saturday, promising a friendly regulatory climate for new energy jobs and industry to people in places that have seen decades of economic decline.

"The president wants to talk about the economy a little -- not as much as I want to talk about the economy," Romney told the hundreds of people at the Weatherly Casting and Machine Co. in Weatherly, his first stop of the day. Obama's recent comment that the private sector was "doing fine" runs counter to what businesses say, Romney said.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee worked to keep the focus on jobs a day after Obama took action to prevent the deportation of some illegal immigrants.

Romney also was dogged by protesters and former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat and Obama supporter who prompted him to divert from a planned convenience-store meet-and-greet.

While "hope and change" was Obama's 2008 campaign slogan, Romney said, "Now I think he'd like to change it to 'Hoping to Change the Subject.' "

Romney's stop at the foundry and machine shop that employs 74 people came on the second day of his six-state "Every Town Counts" bus tour through rural areas of states that Obama won in 2008.

He was set to visit three towns in Pennsylvania Saturday before flying to Ohio, where he'll spend Sunday, Father's Day. His bus trip began Friday in New Hampshire and will move next week to Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama and his family took a two-day Father's Day break in their hometown of Chicago this weekend, attending a wedding, visiting friends and remaining out of the public spotlight.

Small U.S. flags planted by neighbors lined the curbs of South Greenwood Avenue as the Obamas arrived home on Chicago's South Side on Friday.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama called on Congress to end partisan gridlock and pass proposals he says would put Americans back to work. Lawmakers "haven't lifted a finger" on many of the ideas he sent them last year, Obama said, adding there's no excuse for inaction because it's an election year. With AP