SPRINGFIELD, Va. — President Obama and Mitt Romney battled in Virginia, campaigning in close proximity for a third straight day yesterday.
Romney blasted Obama’s budget deal, which would slash about $1 trillion in defense spending over 10 years and cost about 130,000 jobs in Virginia.
“The idea of cutting our military . . . is unthinkable and devastating,” Romney saidat an American Legion hall here .
About 200 miles away, Obama hammered Romney for saying he can’t worry about “47 percent” of Americas who rely on government benefits and don’t pay income taxes.
“I don’t think we can get very far with leaders who write off half the nation as victims,” he said at a rally in Virginia Beach.
The two campaigns also crossed paths Tuesday and Wednesday in Ohio, which along with Florida and Virginia are the must-win swing states.
Obama holds a thin 46-44 percent lead in Virginia, showed a new Suffolk University/NBC12 poll.
Obama’s stump speech also echoed a new TV ad in which Obama calls raising taxes on the wealthy a “new economic patriotism.”