DEFIANCE, Ohio (AP) - Mitt Romney is trying to close the deal with voters by focusing on their economic concerns, an area where polling shows the Republican nominee has an edge heading into the final days of the campaign.
As President Barack Obama takes a break from the campaign trail, Romney was to deliver what his campaign billed as a significant economic address in swing state Iowa. While he was not expected to break new ground, his campaign said Romney would use the speech to help crystalize the differences between the candidates' economic approaches.
The speech comes on the same day the government showed a slight pick-up in economic growth in its final report before the Nov. 6 election.
The pickup to 2 percent from July to September from the 1.3 percent in the second quarter may help Obama's message that the economy is improving. Still, growth remains too weak to rapidly boost hiring. And the 1.74 percent rate for 2012 trails last year's 1.8 percent growth, a point Romney is likely to emphasize.
An Associated Press-GfK poll out this week shows Romney overtaking Obama as the candidate that likely voters trust more to handle the economy. The poll found 51 percent of those voters surveyed Oct. 19-23 picking Romney, compared to 44 percent for Obama. The two candidates were tied among likely voters on that issue in the previous poll in mid-September.
Still, the two are locked in a dead heat in the nationwide poll. Other surveys show a tight race in the swing states that will decide the election, with the winning candidate needing 270 Electoral College votes.