Obama, Romney plunge into 60-day race to election

President Obama Mitt Romney split-screen

Photographer: CNN
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Posted: 09/07/2012

By: DONNA CASSATA, Associated Press, JULIE PACE, Associated Press

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Sixty days to the election, President Barack Obama is charging onto the campaign trail pleading for patience from hard-pressed Americans toying with the notion of change, and portraying Republican rival Mitt Romney as unproven.

Obama and Romney are shadowing each other Friday in New Hampshire and Iowa, improbable battleground states in the too-close-to-call race. The campaigning was sure to be dominated by a new report from the Labor Department on the nation's jobless.

Romney and the Republicans argue that three years of unemployment above 8 percent and minimal economic growth are valid reasons to fire Obama after one term.

Obama says that, having inherited one of the worst economic crises in history, he needs more time to turn the nation around.