Florida is the prize of the swing states, with 29 electoral votes and plenty of ripe targets to tap for funding. Both President Obama and Mitt Romney were in the state Thursday—Romney having stayed over Wednesday night—speaking mainly about immigration, Medicare and Romney's secret fundraiser video and at one point, narrowly missing each other at Miami International Airport.

President Obama appeared at the University of Miami at a forum hosted by Univision, following Romney's appearance at the same event the night before. He made sure to emphasize the distance between his actions on immigration policy, which some have complained have not been enough, with Romney's mixed messaging and apparent support for more draconian policies, as Bloomberg Businessweek reports:

"Pressed on his failure to keep a promise to overhaul immigration laws during his first year in office, Obama said dealing with the financial crisis was his top priority and blamed Republicans for obstructing attempts at reform. He also contrasted his support for creating a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants with Romney’s position.

'The other candidate, who has said he would veto the Dream Act, is uncertain is what his plan for immigration reform would be and who considers the Arizona law a model for the nation and has suggested that the main solution is self-deportation,' Obama told the Univision audience at the University of Miami in Coral Gables.

Hispanic make up 23 percent of Florida’s population and Obama captured 57 percent of the Hispanic vote there in 2008, according to the Pew Hispanic Center."

The president also made sure to speak on the fundraiser video, recently released by Mother Jones, in which Romney branded the roughly half of Americans who, for various reasons, do not pay federal income taxes, as "victims" who feel entitled to government largesse. According to the Huffington Post, President Obama responded to this accusation by saying when he hears someone with that perception, "my thinking is maybe you haven't gotten around a lot."

Romney found himself also talking about those comments as he moved into Central Florida, a bellwether area of an often bellwether state that played an important role in carrying it for Obama in 2008. It also is home to wealthy gulfside cities with deep-pocketed donors. As the Huffington Post reports:

"Romney continued to try to clarify his remarks Thursday before an audience of about 250 in Sarasota, where donors paid between $2,500 and $50,000 to meet the Republican nominee.

'I care about every person in America,' Romney said. 'I know what it takes to help those people and I will.'"

The challenger has taken some criticism for his schedule in recent days, raising money in uncompetitive states like California, Texas and Utah and not out there trying to win independent voters in swing states. In light of the recent video, where Romney appears more comfortable at the home of a hedge fund manager than he usually does around a more random selection of people, being seen as overly concerned with elite fundraisers is bad for the candidate's image. According to Reuters, the Romney campaign claims the excessive fundraising is out of necessity.

Romney, whose running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, has proposed turning Medicare into a premium support program, has tried to deal with the political liability of that position in a senior-heavy state like Florida by using one of the state's rising political stars, and appealing to a sense of younger people having to sacrifice, as Reuters reports:

 

"A new Romney TV ad features Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio.

 

'We can save Medicare' without changing seniors' plans, he said in the ad. 'But only if younger Americans accept that our Medicare will be different than our parents' when we retire in thirty years. But after all they did for us, isn't that the least we can do?'"

 

President Obama was 5 points ahead of Mitt Romney in a Fox News poll of likely voters taken between September 16-18.

 

Read more of Neon Tommy's coverage of President Obama here.

Read more of Neon Tommy's coverage of Mitt Romney here.

Reach Executive Producer Matt Pressberg here.