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mercy of insurance companies after a lifetime of work. You should be able to retire with dignity and respect."
• Vice President Joe Biden, his wife, Jill, and first lady Michelle Obama campaigned with the president in New Hampshire and Iowa, states Romney also visited on the same day. Biden was campaigning alone in Ohio this weekend.
• Obama's visit to Florida is his first since Romney and the GOP held their convention in Tampa last month. With 29 electoral votes, the state is a lynchpin in both candidates' strategies for winning the election.
• Eager to characterize Republicans in general as out-of-the-mainstream, Obama has enlisted Florida's former Republican governor Charlie Crist to campaign with him. Now an independent, Crist was a featured speaker at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.
• Today's Republicans, Crist told delegates Thursday, are "beholden to my-way-or-the-highway bullies, indebted to billionaires who bankroll ads and allergic to the very idea of compromise."
• Meanwhile, Romney and Obama are deadlocked in Virginia, where the Democrat is strong in the northern suburbs of Washington, D.C., and Romney does better in the south and rural areas.
• Romney sees working-class white voters, who have at times voted for moderate Democrats such as Sen. Mark Warner, as ripe for picking. Polls show those voters preferring Romney over Obama.
• Romney plans to attend a NASCAR race in Richmond, a nod to this potentially pivotal voting bloc in Virginia, as well as Ohio, Florida, Iowa and other battle

grounds.
• Romney aides say the Republican can win support by going after Obama for looming cuts in the military that could be factors in Norfolk and Hampton Roads. At issue are threatened deep spending cuts that were designed to force Congress to negotiate a debt-reduction package. But Congress has not acted and the cuts are set to kick in in January. Obama has opposed the depth of the cuts but has said Republicans need to adopt a plan that includes increases in revenue.
• Romney faces similar challenges of his own in northern Virginia, where his pledge to cut 10 percent of the federal workforce affects local jobs.
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