Vice presidential debate up next, Romney says 'I'm not going to raise taxes on ... - Washington Post [ournewsa.blogspot.com]
euronews U talk - How safe are toys in Europe?This week in U talk, our internet question comes from 10-year-old Laure in France. She asks: "When I was little, my mummy kept saying that toy safety was very important. But can a toy really be dangerous?" Sylvia Maurer, Safety and Environment Senior Policy Officer with BEUC, the European Consumers' Organisation, provides the answers. BEUC acts as the umbrella group in Brussels for 42 independent national consumer organisations. ... www.euronews.net
AKRON, Ohio â" Republican Mitt Romney is making a fresh bid for Ohio voters, trying to use post-debate momentum to make up ground in a state that has been a mainstay of GOP presidential candidates and could help President Barack Obama hold onto the White House.
Romney planned events in communities north of Columbus and Dayton on Wednesday, intensifying his efforts in the state after a strong debate performance that has helped him close a deficit against Obama in national polls.
âThis economy is not creating the jobs it should. Weâve got to fix it,â Romney said Tuesday in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, where he campaigned with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. âWeâre going to do it here in Ohio.â
Ohio remained a focus for both campaigns, as Obama and Romney pushed for support on the last day of voter registration before Election Day. Obama returned to the White House following a fundraising trip through California and a stop Tuesday at Ohio State University, where he urged students to cast their ballots early.
âDonât wait. Do not be late. Go vote today,â Obama said. âAll right, Buckeyes, we need you.â His campaign staged buses nearby, ready to ferry students or other supporters to registration centers. Obama was staying off the campaign trail on Wednesday and then heading to Florida on Thursday for events in the nationâs largest battleground state.
Romney was campaigning in Ohio as his comments on abortion to an Iowa newspaper brought attention to social issues. Romney told The Des Moines Register in an interview Tuesday that he would not pursue any abortion-related legislation if elected president. His campaign tried to walk back the remarks, saying he would support legislation aimed at providing greater protections for life, without elaborating.
Obamaâs campaign jumped on the apparent shift, saying in a statement that âwithin just a couple hours of the story with Romneyâs abortion comments posting, his spokesperson clarified that he would in fact support legislation to restrict a womanâs right to choose.â
The attention on Ohio came amid signs that Obamaâs advantage in Ohio was narrowing. A new CNN poll showed Obama leading Romney 51 percent to 47 percent among likely Ohio voters, depicting a tighter race. Republicans said Romneyâs strong debate appearance has helped his standing in national polls and they were beginning to see evidence of that in the battleground states most likely to decide the election.
âThere isnât any question that he has breathed new life and new energy into the Republican Party,â Ohio Gov. John Kasich said Tuesday on a conference call with reporters. âWeâre seeing that there is greater intensity among Republicans and a great willingness to get out and vote and participate than weâre seeing with Democrats.â
With 18 electoral votes, Ohio remains a linchpin in Romneyâs strategy to string together enough state victories to amass the 270 Electoral College votes needed to take the White House. No Republican has won the presidency without this Midwestern state, and if Romney were to lose here, he would have to carry every other battleground state except tiny New Hampshire.
Romney has far fewer state-by-state paths to the White House than Obama, who still has several routes to victory should he lose in Ohio.
With less than a month before the election, Romney has increased his focus on the state: Heâs spending three of the next four days in Ohio before the second presidential debate in Hempstead, N.Y., on Tuesday. Running mate Paul Ryan meets Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday in Kentucky for the only vice presidential debate of the campaign.
Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki dismissed the impact of polls showing a tighter race, saying Democrats always expected the race in Ohio and elsewhere to narrow ahead of Election Day.
âWe have blinders on. Weâre implementing our own game plan,â Psaki said. âWeâre focused on getting our supporters out, communicating the choice.â
Separately, Romneyâs campaign is trying to reach out to voters in new ways, dispatching Ann Romney to guest-host âGood Morning Americaâ on Wednesday. Mrs. Romney was scheduled to be on hand for the morning news programâs 8 a.m. hour, filling in for co-anchor Robin Roberts, who is on extended medical leave.
___
Ken Thomas reported from Washington.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Fault Lines - The US and HondurasHonduras has become the newest front in the US war on drugs in Latin America. The US has provided financial support for both the police and the military there in spite of its deep corruption issues. Furthermore, members of both institutions have been linked to a range of killings. Political dissidents, human rights workers and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community have all been killed at alarming rates. In May, a mission in the Moskitia region, which was led by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), left four innocent civilians killed and four others wounded. It was followed by two more incidents where a US DEA agent shot and killed an alleged drug trafficker. Local communities have demanded a thorough investigation but so far nothing has been done. The US has a long and controversial history in Honduras. In the 1980s, the US built a base there and trained an elite Honduran military unit. That unit went on to carry out tortures, kidnappings and killings. Who is responsible? What should be the role of the US in Honduras? And what happened that night in the Moskitia when a US raid ended up leaving innocent people dead? Fault Lines travels to Honduras, the country with the highest homicide rate in the world, to find out.
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