With swing voters in his sights, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is tacking toward the center on health care and defense spending now that he's put his final partisan hurdle behind him and the sprint to Nov. 6 is underway.

The nation's jobless loom over President Barack Obama's presidential campaign. At no point will that association be more evident than Friday when the government reveals the nation's most recent unemployment numbers just hours after Obama wraps up his convention pitch and sets off on a tour of critical swing states.

For all the recent diversions over Medicare and abortion, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is still running a campaign that paints with a broad economic brush in hopes of rallying voters on jobs and fiscal policy.

Who loves Medicare more?

Mitt Romney promised Thursday that his economic program will create 12 million new jobs in the next four years, and likened President Barack Obama to a "dog trying to chase its tail" when it comes to strengthening the sluggish recovery.

Against an increasingly bitter campaign backdrop, President Barack Obama is seeking to shore up support for his re-election in Virginia, a state he won four years ago ending decades of domination by Republican presidential candidates.

Fighting a swell of economic anxiety, President Barack Obama has lost much of the narrow lead he held just a month ago over Mitt Romney and the two now are locked in a virtually even race for the White House, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll.

A growing chorus of once-confident Democrats now say President Barack Obama could lose the November election.