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Obama, Romney Make Final Push For Money, Swing States And China

Paige Brettingen |
October 26, 2012 | 10:21 a.m. PDT

Executive Producer

It's unlikely Obama or Romney will run out of money before November 6, but they seem to think they can't have enough of it (Creative Commons/401(k))
It's unlikely Obama or Romney will run out of money before November 6, but they seem to think they can't have enough of it (Creative Commons/401(k))

As President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney began their final whirlwind of campaigning this week, they remain focused on what could give them that final boost in the polls: more campaign money. And they won't stop raising it until the very end.

According to The New York Times, both parties are set to raise more than $1 billion each by Election Day. Sources of that campaign money comes from a broad spectrum. Wall Street has invested in Mitt Romney's campaign more than any other candidate in presidential history. Since the end of September, financial firm employees have given more than $18 million to Romney's campaign and tens of millions to the super PACs that support him.

Meanwhile, President Obama is being backed by insurance companies, doctors, law firms, accounting firms and real estate businesses.

SEE ALSO: 2012 Presidential Campaign On Track To Be Most Expensive Ever

"The hefty numbers suggest that neither side is likely to run into a cash crunch in the final 11 days of the race, as both campaigns continue to inundate swing states with broadcast ads, mailers and get-out-the-vote workers. The Obama team also reserved a $15 million line of credit," The Washington Post reported.

However, as the election nears, Romney has pulled ahead in the fundraising battle during the first 17 days of October, raising about $21.3 million more than Obama, according to The Washington Post. The person primarily responsible for helping Romney with that is Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his physician wife, Miriam, who recently gave $10 million– making up nearly half the sum Romney collected, USA Today reported:

Adelson, who has pledged to do "whatever it takes" to end Obama's presidency, and his wife now have donated $57.2 million to super PACs to influence the election – an unprecedented amount of political spending by individual donors.

The extra fundraising, that is being devoted to advertisements in key swing states, may be helping Romney gain more momentum. National tracking polls released on Thursday showed Mitt Romney is leading President Barack Obama by small single-digit margins, The Huffington Post reported:

"Six of the eight new polls gave Romney an edge of between 1 and 3 percentage points, and three of the best-known brand names -- Gallup, ABC/Washington Post and Rasmussen Reports -- all converged on a 3-point Romney lead."

MORE: How "Romnesia" And The Female Vote Affects Swing States

 

Yet, when it comes to the swing state of Ohio, which could prove crucial on November 6, DNC Spokesman Brad Woodhouse is confident Obama will take it:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

For both candidates, China has been the hot-topic in reaching out to those whose jobs may be in jeopardy of being outsourced, according to Time:

Twice, Obama has used campaign swings to Ohio to announce new filings with the World Trade Organization that complained about Chinese trade practices. “It’s a symbolic issue. For Ohio workers especially, the outsourcing of jobs is a deep concern, and has been for years,” says Paul Beck, a political scientist at Ohio State University. “So both campaigns are attacking China and blaming the other side for being too soft.”

While Romney has argued that the main problem with China is currency conversions and that "we can compete with any nation in the world so long as we’re playing on a level playing field," the Obama campaign has blasted Romney for investing in companies that outsourced jobs to China.

SEE ALSO: Both Romney And Obama Flail Over China

However, neither candidate's argument seems to check out, Time reports.

Both sides’ attacks are misleading — and, like so much campaign rhetoric, drastically oversimplified. U.S. exports to China have boomed during the Obama administration, and the President has done more than past presidents to protect U.S. trade interests, including imposing tariffs on Chinese solar panels and tires. Obama touted the latter move at the candidates’ foreign policy debate this week, a gesture designed to appeal to Ohio voters. “Obama has really taken a tough position – maybe it’s a position few Americans understand – on China,” says Tim Burga, president of the Ohio AFL-CIO. “As a result of the tariffs on steel and tires, we’ve created jobs in Ohio.”
The attacks on Romney’s China record don’t hold up either. Romney wasn’t actively running Bain when it invested in companies that  outsourced jobs, as fact-checking analyses have shown. And while Romney likely profited from such investments, Bain was neither the only firm engaging in the practice nor the first.

 

Find more Neon Tommy coverage on the 2012 Election here.

See a Neon Tommy special report on campaign money in L.A. here.

Reach Executive Producer Paige Brettingen here. Follow her here.



 

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