OVERNIGHT CAMPAIGN: Romney on the attack

by Emily Goodin, Cameron Joseph, Alexandra Jaffe and Justin Sink - 09/24/12 9:40 PM ET

There are also plans for Romney to begin hitting the trail with more frequency, rather than spending as much time as he had been fundraising.

{mosads}The White House, meanwhile, called the attacks “desperate and offensive.”

“The president was referring to the transformations in the region,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said at his press briefing. “There is a certain rather desperate attempt to grasp at words and phrases here to find political advantage. And in this case, that’s profoundly offensive.”

TOMORROW’S AGENDA TODAY: President Obama and Mitt Romney will separately address the Clinton Global Initiative. Romney speaks at 9:15 a.m. Obama speaks at noon.

Obama and first lady Michelle Obama appear on ABC’s “The View.” Their interview was taped Monday but airs Tuesday.

Obama will address the U.N. general assembly in the morning. Michelle Obama will attend.

Vice President Biden will attend a campaign rally in Chesterfield, Va., at 10:45 a.m.

Romney address the NBC Education Summit in New York City at 11:10 a.m.

Romney and Paul Ryan will be on Day Two of their Ohio bus tour. Ryan will attend a town hall at Byer Steel Group in Cincinnati at 11:30 a.m. Romney and Ryan will then attend a campaign rally at Dayton International Airport in Vandalia at 3 p.m.

Ryan will arrive in Houston later in the evening.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Of all the useless introductions I’ve ever given, this would top the list.” — Former President Clinton, introducing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at his Clinton Global Initiative conference

POLL POSITION:

Gallup released a poll Monday that found that 50 percent of voters in the 12 swing states feel President Obama can better “address issues facing the Medicare system,” compared to 44 percent who say that Mitt Romney can.

Obama leads Romney in Florida, according to two new polls. The Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times poll released late Sunday finds Obama topping Romney by 1 point, with 48 percent support to Romney’s 47 percent. A survey from Democratic firm Public Policy Polling (PPP) gives Obama a wider, four-point lead over Romney, with 50 percent support to 46 percent.

AD WATCH:

Mitt Romney‘s new TV ad accuses President Obama of failing to stand “up to China,” costing American workers jobs. “Fewer Americans are working today than when President Obama took office. It doesn’t have to be this way, if Obama would stand up to China,” says a narrator in the ad. “China is stealing American ideas and technology. Everything from computers to fighter jets.”

Obama’s new ad hits Romney for controversial comments made at a recent fundraiser, saying he had “callously written off” 47 percent of Americans and calling him to “come clean” by releasing more tax returns. “Mitt Romney attacked 47 percent of Americans who pay no income tax — including veterans, elderly, the disabled,” the narrator says. “Doesn’t the president have to worry about everyone?”

BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE:

The National Republican Congressional Committee is launching 26 ads in 18 states nationwide, a $6.3-million buy aimed at taking down Democrats locked in tough races.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is up with two new ads, tying Rep. Chris Gibson (R-N.Y.) to Mitt Romney and his Medicare plan and hitting Illinois candidate Jason Plummer (R) for praising the same plan. Both are running in toss-up districts.

FLORIDA: A poll from House Majority PAC and SEIU put Democratic candidate Joe Garcia ahead of Republican Rep. David Rivera (Fla.) by 9 percentage points in the race for the embattled congressman’s seat, 50 percent to 41 percent.

FLORIDA: Democrat Patrick Murphy released a new ad in his campaign to unseat Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) that accuses the congressman of supporting outsourcing, while proclaiming Murphy is “the only candidate who’s created jobs.”

MICHIGAN: Rep. Dan Benishek (R-Mich.) trails challenger Gary McDowell (D) by nine points, 49 to 40 percent, according to a poll conducted for the pro-Democratic House Majority PAC, AFSCME and the League of Conservation Voters.

NEW YORK: Rep. Michael Grimm‘s (R-N.Y.) Staten Island campaign office was broken into over the weekend, with unknown vandals shattering three windows and clearing a computer hard drive of campaign files and polling data, the New York Daily News reports. The congressman, who has been under federal investigation for potentially illegal fundraising activity, said that he believes the break-in is “a politically motivated crime.”

NORTH CAROLINA: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also canceled another week of ad reservations for Rep. Larry Kissell (D-N.C.), a sign it’s likely writing off the lawmaker, who was put in a much tougher district by a Republican gerrymander.

SENATE SHOWDOWN:

CONNECTICUT: Rep. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) released a new ad that attacks Republican Linda McMahon on her record on women’s issues, accusing her of demeaning women to make money as CEO of WWE, Inc., and highlighting her support for Republican-backed policies on women’s health that the ad characterizes as counter to women’s best interests.

MASSACHUSETTS: A tough new ad out from Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) hits Democrat Elizabeth Warren on the question of her heritage. “Who Knows?” uses news clips spliced together to criticize Warren, one stating “she’s facing tough questions about whether she claimed to be a minority for professional gain.”

MONTANA: Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) narrowly leads Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) by 48 to 45 percent, according to a new independent poll from Mason-Dixon Research for a group of Montana newspapers. The two have been neck-and-neck in nearly every single public poll of the race, though Rehberg has held a slight edge in more of them than Tester has.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that now is “not the time” to talk about the details of Social Security reform. “I’ll tell you what, when you get elected to the United States Senate and sit at that table, we’ll have that discussion,” he said. “This is not the time. We’re not going to have that discussion right now unless the Congress wants to sit at a table and say, ‘We’re ready to move on a balanced approach to this.’ ”

Paul Ryan looked to brush off criticism from some prominent conservatives about the strategy of Mitt Romney’s campaign, saying in an interview that conservative pundits were prone to “complain.” “A, we still have a ways to go. We still have a lot left that we’re planning on doing,” Ryan told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “B, I think that’s just what conservatives do by nature. I think that’s just the nature of conservative punditry is to do that — to kind of complain — about any imperfection they might see.”

Ryan argued that a vote for a third-party candidate would likely help President Obama win reelection. “Do you want Barack Obama to be reelected? Then don’t vote for Ron Paul,” Ryan said during a campaign speech in Lima, Ohio.

Videos promoting Obama get twice as many views on YouTube compared to those supporting Romney, according to Unruly, a social video distribution platform.

Please send tips and comments to Emily Goodin, egoodin@digital-stage.thehill.com; Cameron Joseph, cjoseph@digital-stage.thehill.com; Alexandra Jaffe, ajaffe@digital-stage.thehill.com, and Justin Sink, jsink@digital-stage.thehill.com

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