Wall Street left to rebuild Obama ties after backing Romney

n">(Reuters) - Wall Street firms gambled on Mitt Romney and lost. Now, faced with the prospect of even tougher regulations in President Barack Obama's second term, they have to build better ties with the new financial regulators he will appoint.

Obama lost the support of many bankers in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and the passage of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law, which sought to shore up the financial system but also cost banks billions of dollars in annual profit.

The Democratic president has openly stated his distaste for "fat cat bankers" who "don't get it", and bankers fears more losses ahead if they cannot influence how the Dodd-Frank rules are implemented.

"He will continue to increase regulation, demonize and vilify businesses, and spend a lot of money, and tax people, and so forth," said Dick Kovacevich, a former Wells Fargo CEO and supporter of Republican challenger Romney.

Wall Street firms are also worried about Elizabeth Warren, whose victory in the Massachusetts Senate race may galvanize her to push for more regulations on bank lending to protect consumers. Warren was instrumental in creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which critics say could weigh down the economy with new regulations.

"I think the Obama win, along with Elizabeth Warren, will lead to more accountability and tighter regulation on Wall Street," said Chris Tobe, who advises pension plans as a principal at Stable Value Consultants and is a trustee of the Kentucky state pension fund. "Especially after a big shift to Romney from Wall Street, Obama I believe will be less likely to hold back on regulation this term."

People working in the U.S. securities and investment industry gave $20 million to Romney's campaign, versus $6 million to Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Four years ago, Obama received $16 million and Republican nominee John McCain only attracted $9 million.

"I voted for Obama in 2008 but obviously believed that Romney would be better able to handle the problems that we're confronting," said Scott Sperling, co-president of private equity firm Thomas H Lee Partners. "It is incumbent on us to work with the administration in a productive way to deal with these issues."

RELATIONS WITH REGULATORS

Some banking industry lobbyists say their focus will be on the key regulators Obama is expected to name in his second term.

Among the financial industry's top complaints are the Volcker rule, which prevents banks from making big bets in financial markets with their own money, and the Durbin amendment, which limits the fees they can charge merchants for processing debit-card transactions.

Banks also want to scale back capital requirements, which cut into the returns banks can earn on their equity capital.

As key details of Dodd-Frank have yet to be ironed out, the banks need good relations with regulators to influence their interpretation of the rules.

Chairmen often determine agendas at agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), so Obama's choices to fill any open spots could affect how quickly new rules are rolled out.

"If there was a different chair who had a different agenda, you could slow things down," said Bart Chilton, a Democratic commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

CHANGING CAST OF CHARACTERS

Major power players under Obama, including Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, are expected to step down, offering Wall Street a chance to reset relations.

One possible replacement for Geithner, who has said he will not stay for a second Obama term, is White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew, a former Citigroup Inc banker.

"I hope Obama puts someone in who understands fiscal issues and who will have stature to work on the Hill to negotiate some type of package on fiscal reform," said Sheila Bair, former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp chairman.

SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro's term does not expire until June 2014, but speculation about her departure has been swirling for well over a year. Last month, she attempted to shoot down the rumors, saying she had not thought about her post-SEC plans.

SEC watchers speculate the job could go to SEC Commissioner Elisse Walter, a close friend of Schapiro's and a former executive at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, an industry-funded watchdog.

CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler's term technically expired in April. He is allowed to stay on as chairman until the end of 2013 and his renomination is an open question.

Gensler has been assailed by Republicans over his implementation of Dodd-Frank and criticized by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle following the collapse of futures brokerages MF Global and Peregrine Financial Group.

Some Democratic politicians have also criticized Gensler for not doing enough to crack down on oil market speculators, with a few going so far as to suggest he should not be renominated.

FISCAL CLIFF

Much of Wall Street's regulatory agenda, however, is set to take a back-seat in the short term due to the looming fiscal cliff -- a package of tax increases and federal spending cuts that will begin in January unless lawmakers act.

Bankers are worried an impasse in solving the issue could spark an economic downturn that would hit the value of assets and make banks more reluctant to lend.

In the longer term, banking lobbyists and other opponents to Dodd-Frank will try to beat back some rules with technicalities.

Paul Atkins, a Republican and former SEC commissioner, said he expects Dodd-Frank reform critics may have some success making narrow legal challenges and seeking to throttle reforms through congressional oversight.

"Dodd-Frank assigned a lot of powers to the regulatory agencies, so there is not much that Congress can do," he said.

"I expect that the Republican House would keep the pressure on through hearings, like they are doing now. People will also certainly take the fight to the courts."

(Reporting By Emily Stephenson and Sarah N. Lynch in Washington, D.C., Rick Rothacker in Charlotte, Lauren LaCapra, Dan Wilchins, Olivia Oran and Katya Wachtel in New York, and Aaron Pressman and Ross Kerber in Boston; Writing by Greg Roumeliotis; Editing by Paritosh Bansal, Tiffany Wu and Richard Pullin)

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Romney casts vote, feels "great" about Ohio

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney gets into his vehicle after voting in Belmont, Massachusetts November 6, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder

By Patricia Zengerle

BELMONT, Massachusetts | Tue Nov 6, 2012 10:53am EST

BELMONT, Massachusetts (Reuters) - Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney cast his vote in a Boston suburb on Tuesday morning, saying he felt good about his chances of winning the presidency.

After voting, Romney kissed his wife, Ann, goodbye and headed out for last-minute campaigning in Cleveland and Pittsburgh - cities in the crucial electoral states of Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Romney wore a gray suit and Ann was in a bright blue coat as they voted side by side at a community center for the elderly.

Asked who he voted for, a visibly relaxed and happy Romney replied: "I think you know."

The former Massachusetts governor, who owns a house in Belmont, was asked how he felt and responded "very good, very good." As for his prospects in Ohio, Romney said, "I feel great about Ohio."

It was the first time Romney has spoken to the traveling media corps since September 28 - a five-week silence.

Later Tuesday morning, Romney's vice presidential running mate, Paul Ryan, voted with his family in tow at the Hedberg Public Library in his hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin.

Accompanied by two of his children, the smiling Ryan filled out his paper ballot and turned it in, before herding all three of his children out of the library and leaving to join up with Romney in Cleveland later on Tuesday.

(Additional reporting and writing by Susan Heavey in Washington; Editing by Bill Trott)

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Obama congratulates Romney on "spirited campaign"

1 of 2. First lady Michelle Obama hugs U.S. President Barack Obama on last night of campaigning while in Des Moines, Iowa, November 5, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Larry Downing

By Jeff Mason

CHICAGO | Tue Nov 6, 2012 12:24pm EST

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama congratulated Republican rival Mitt Romney on Tuesday for running a hard-fought race for the White House and expressed confidence he would win re-election during a stop at a local campaign office to thank volunteers.

"I ... want to say to Governor Romney congratulations on a spirited campaign. I know that his supporters are just as engaged and just as enthusiastic and working just as hard today," Obama said as volunteers made phone calls encouraging supporters to get to the polls.

"We feel confident we've got the votes to win, but it's going to depend ultimately on whether those votes turn out. And so I would encourage everybody on all sides just to make sure that you exercise this precious right that we have that people fought so hard for us to have."

Obama made calls to volunteers from the campaign office to thank them for working for his re-election.

"I expect that we'll have a good night, but no matter what happens, I just want to say how much I appreciate everybody who supported me, everybody who's worked so hard on my behalf," he said.

Opinion polls show Obama and Romney in a virtual dead heat, although the Democratic incumbent has a slight advantage in several vital swing states that could give him the 270 electoral votes needed to win the state-by-state contest.

Traditionally presidential candidates get media attention on Election Day by going to vote. But Obama cast his ballot in Chicago last month - part of his campaign's push to get its supporters to vote early.

So the president's visit to the office gave him a chance to get in front of the cameras, generate news coverage and encourage turnout.

Obama and Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and private equity executive, have fought a largely negative campaign. Obama's team attacked Romney for his business record, and Romney's team criticized the president for presiding over high unemployment and a slow economic recovery.

Obama's conciliatory comments represent the close of the bitter campaign and could appeal to last-minute undecided voters, who are turned off by the lack of bipartisanship in Washington.

In addition to his campaign office stop, Obama is doing a round of interviews and is expected to play basketball with friends, a tradition for the sports-loving president on Election Day.

(Editing by Xavier Briand)

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Romney, Obama converge on Iowa in late scramble for votes

1 of 13. U.S. President Barack Obama steps aboard Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, November 4, 2012. Obama is traveling to New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio and Colorado for election campaigning on Sunday.

Credit: Reuters/Jason Reed

By Patricia Zengerle and Matt Spetalnick

DUBUQUE, Iowa | Sun Nov 4, 2012 8:39am EST

DUBUQUE, Iowa (Reuters) - The presidential race, which has hinged for months on a handful of states, converged on one city in Iowa on Saturday as President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney each made a last-minute appeal for support before Tuesday's election.

With the race in a dead heat nationally, both candidates touched down briefly in Dubuque, a Mississippi River city of 58,000 people, as they sprinted across the country in a bid to secure any possible advantage before Election Day.

In an airport rally early in the afternoon, Romney urged supporters to try to sway friends and neighbors who back Obama. He said he would reach out to Democrats as well if elected - a stance that could appeal to independent voters who have little stomach for partisan gridlock.

"I want you to reach across the street to the neighbor, who has that other sign in his front yard. And I'm going to reach across the aisle in Washington, D.C., to the politicians who are working for the other candidate," Romney told about 2,000 people.

Six hours later, Obama reminded about 5,000 people in a park in downtown Dubuque that he had started his first presidential bid in Iowa in 2007, and highlighted successes of his time in office, such as ending the war in Iraq and expanding access to healthcare.

"After two years of campaigning and after four years as president, you know me by now. You may not agree with every decision I made, you may have sometimes been frustrated with the pace of change. But you know that I say what I mean and I mean what I say," Obama said.

A new poll by the Des Moines Register newspaper showed Obama leading Romney by 47 percent to 42 percent in Iowa, though the survey showed the president barely edging his opponent on the critical question of which candidate would do better fixing the economy.

Earlier in the day in Ohio, Obama hammered Romney for opposing his bailout of the auto industry and said his challenger tried to scare workers by saying inaccurately that Chrysler planned to shift jobs to China.

About one in eight Ohio jobs is tied to auto manufacturing, and the bailout has helped Obama win over some of the white working-class voters who are heavily backing Romney in rest of the country.

"I've been a Republican for 35 years and I've never voted for a Democrat on the federal level - until now," retiree Patrick Dorsey said as he waited for Obama to speak. "Economically, Romney's just going to make the rich richer."

TIGHT RACE IN POLLS

Romney will have a hard time winning the White House if he does not carry Ohio, and a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Saturday showed him trailing Obama by a statistically meaningless margin of 1 percentage point in the state. Other polls show him trailing by a larger margin in Ohio.

The race for the White House remains effectively tied at a national level, with 47 percent backing Obama and 46 percent supporting Romney, according to a Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll released on Saturday.

Still, analysts say Obama holds an edge in many of the eight or nine competitive states that will determine who controls the White House. Reuters/Ipsos polls released on Saturday showed Obama leading by 3 percentage points in Virginia but trailing by 2 points in Colorado. The two were dead even in Florida. All the results were within the credibility interval, a measurement of the accuracy of online polls.

Other surveys generally show Obama leading by narrow margins in Wisconsin, Nevada and New Hampshire. Romney is considered to have the edge in North Carolina.

Romney has tried to expand the battlefield over the past week to states that had been considered beyond his reach.

"We win Pennsylvania, we save America in three days," Romney's vice presidential running mate, Paul Ryan, said at an airport rally in the state capital, Harrisburg.

Ryan is due to visit Minnesota on Sunday, another state that has been considered solidly Democratic. Romney himself is due to speak in Pennsylvania on Sunday.

Obama officials say the Romney campaign is visiting those states out of desperation because he has been unable to establish a clear lead in other battleground states.

Nevertheless, the Obama campaign is dispatching Vice President Joe Biden's wife, Jill Biden, to Pennsylvania and former President Bill Clinton to Minnesota.

Capping Saturday's tour, Obama made a joint appearance with Clinton before an enthusiastic crowd of 24,000 - one of the largest of his campaign - at an outdoor arena in Bristow, Virginia. The Dave Matthews Band provided the warm-up act.

On stage, Clinton mocked Romney for his shifting positions and attempts to explain away earlier comments on the auto bailout, saying the Republican "tied himself in so many knots ... that he could be hired as the chief contortionist for the Cirque du Soleil."

Clinton, seen by Obama's campaign as appealing to undecided voters because of the prosperous economy he presided over, lauded the president as a "good commander-in-chief and a good decider-in-chief."

Earlier on Saturday, Obama also held a rally in Wisconsin, a state considered safely in his column earlier this year.

"You don't take anything for granted, you go as hard as you can to the end, and that's exactly what we're going to do in all our battleground states," said campaign manager Jim Messina.

Obama started the day at the federal government's disaster-relief headquarters in Washington, where he received an update on the efforts to help Northeastern coastal states recover from devastating storm Sandy.

The storm has afforded the Democrat an opportunity to rise above the fray of campaigning. But it has also raised the stakes for him to show his administration can respond quickly and effectively in a crisis, as residents of New York and New Jersey vent frustration at power outages and gasoline shortages.

(Additional reporting by Samuel P. Jacobs, Matt Spetalnick, Jeff Mason and Mark Felsenthal; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Peter Cooney and Doina Chiacu)

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Obama and Romney tied three days before election

1 of 15. David Ewing hangs a piece of campaign literature on a door knob as he canvasses for U.S. President Barack Obama in Portsmouth, New Hampshire November 3, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Jessica Rinaldi

By Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON | Sun Nov 4, 2012 4:55am EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney remain essentially tied in the race for the White House with razor thin margins in four key swing states, according to a Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll released on Saturday.

Three days before the November 6 election, both men are neck and neck in Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Colorado, the poll showed.

Nationally, the electorate is divided. Of likely voters polled, 47 percent said they would back Obama, the Democratic incumbent, while 46 percent said they would back Romney, the former Massachusetts governor.

The results fall within the polls' credibility interval, a tool used to account for statistical variation in Internet-based polls.

The two men have been locked in a tight race for weeks. Both are doing final campaign swings over the weekend, trying to sway a small group of remaining undecided voters and to encourage their supporters to get to the polls.

A handful of states that traditionally swing between voting for Republican and Democratic presidential candidates will determine who wins the White House. All of them are close.

In one of the biggest prizes of the election - Ohio - Obama has a very slight lead over Romney with 46 percent compared to 45 percent support among likely voters, the poll showed.

In Florida, another big prize, they are tied at 47 percent.

In Virginia, Obama leads Romney 48 percent to 45 percent among likely voters. In Colorado, Romney leads Obama 47 percent to 45 percent.

"It's really going to come down to the wire," said Ipsos pollster Julia Clark, adding that Obama still had a better likelihood of winning the 270 state electoral votes needed to secure victory.

But with the data tight in the swing states for both candidates, she added: "I don't think we can count any of them in the bag yet."

"The electoral map does favor Obama," Clark said. "It's just so on a razor's edge."

The precision of the Reuters/Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval, which in the case of the national poll is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points for likely voters.

(The Reuters/Ipsos database is now public and searchable here: www.tinyurl.com/reuterspoll)

(Editing by Alistair Bell and Jackie Frank)

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Obama front and center in storm crisis as Romney subdued

1 of 7. U.S. President Barack Obama visits the FEMA headquarters following Hurricane Sandy in Washington, October 31, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Jason Reed

By Mark Felsenthal

ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey | Wed Oct 31, 2012 8:19pm EDT

ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey (Reuters) - In a close and bitterly fought campaign for president, it was a day of contrasts: President Barack Obama joined New Jersey's Republican governor to tour storm-ravaged areas, while election rival Mitt Romney was relegated to a subdued day of rallies in Florida.

The devastation wrought by mammoth storm Sandy allowed Obama to project an image of a president in charge at a time of crisis. Tied in polls six days before the election, he is fighting to gain an edge over Republican Romney whose recent momentum may be slowing.

The Democrat took a helicopter tour of the damage in New Jersey with Governor Chris Christie, a high-profile Romney supporter who has nevertheless praised Obama lavishly in the last two days for expediting federal storm relief.

With Christie at his side, Obama promised quick federal aid.

"We're not going to tolerate red tape, we're not going to tolerate bureaucracy," he said.

In unusually warm remarks, Christie again lauded Obama.

"It's really important to have the president of the United States acknowledge all the suffering that's going on here in New Jersey and I appreciate it very much," he said, later thanking the president for his "compassion."

His comments were all the more remarkable given that Christie, normally a hard-nosed partisan, was the keynote speaker at the Republican convention in August and has often accompanied Romney at rallies.

Obama clung to a slender lead in most of the swing states that will decide who captures the 270 electoral votes needed to win.

He scrapped three days of campaign events this week to deal with the storm, a move that may in fact improve his standing with voters. A Washington Post-ABC News poll found eight in 10 voters gave Obama an "excellent" or "good" rating for his handling of the emergency.

Romney senior adviser Kevin Madden, asked by reporters whether he agreed with Christie that Obama was doing a good job handling the hurricane response, said: "I believe the response is still going on so I'm not in a position to qualify the response by the federal government. I believe it's still ongoing."

Visiting the swing state of Florida, Romney had to tone down his remarks for a second consecutive day in order to avoid appearing too political after the storm that crippled transportation, knocked out power for millions and killed 64 people on the eastern seaboard.

Rather than blasting Obama for what he typically calls failures to turn around the economy, Romney did not mention his rival's name, instead saying a change in course is needed and that he would bring Americans together if elected.

"Look, we can't go on the road we're on, we can't change course in America if we keep on attacking each other. We have got to come together," he said in Coral Gables.

POLLS TIGHT, SLIGHT OBAMA EDGE

Sandy forced the presidential race into a deep freeze, just as Romney was gathering steam in the last leg toward the November 6 Romney.

Both campaigns will be back in full swing on Thursday when Romney travels to Virginia and Obama begins a two-day trip to Colorado, Ohio and Nevada.

A Reuters/Ipsos national online tracking survey, like most other similar polls, found the race effectively tied, with Obama on 47 percent to 46 percent for Romney.

The rivals were also neck and neck in four of the most hotly contested states, but Obama holds a slight advantage in two of them. The online Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Obama leading by 3 percentage points in Ohio and 2 points in Virginia. The two are dead even in Florida, and Romney leads by 1 percentage point in Colorado.

Another poll, by Quinnipiac/New York Times/CBS News, showed Obama with slight leads within the margin of error in Virginia and Florida, and a 5-point edge over Romney in the vital battleground of Ohio.

A Romney loss in Ohio would make his electoral math very difficult, and his campaign has aired new ads in recent days in Democratic-leaning Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Michigan in an effort to put those states in play.

Recent polls have shown all three states tightening in what the Romney camp calls a sign of momentum. The Obama campaign said the move to expand the electoral map was a sign of desperation but launched its own ads in those states to counter Romney.

"There is a growing recognition on the other side that Ohio is fading away. There is no battleground state where they can be comfortable," said Obama senior adviser David Axelrod. "They are looking for opportunities."

Romney aides noted that Obama's levels of support still did not reach 50 percent in most swing states, a bad sign for an incumbent, and said that Romney had opened up leads with independent voters who will make the difference.

Romney adviser Madden said the Republican's campaign still believed it would win Ohio and called the moves into the three new states a positive sign.

"Where we feel most confident is that we're playing offense with the map whereas they're playing defense," he told reporters. "We feel like we're really well positioned now."

Obama's support for the 2009 auto bailout has helped him in Ohio, where one in eight jobs is tied to the car industry. The Obama camp continued to hammer Romney for his recent claim that Chrysler planned to move Jeep production out of Ohio to China - a charge refuted on Tuesday by Chrysler's chief executive.

The two campaigns have aired dueling advertisements on the issue, and Vice President Joe Biden took up the cause on a visit to Sarasota, Florida.

"It's an outrageous lie, a lie that is so deceptive and so patently untrue that Chrysler Corporation, including the chairman of the board of Chrysler, they actually spoke up," Biden said, adding the Romney campaign was trying to "scare the living devil" out of auto workers in Ohio.

Romney's running mate, U.S. Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, countered that American taxpayers would lose $25 billion because of Obama's handling of the auto bailout and that Chrysler and General Motors were expanding overseas production.

"These are facts voters deserve to know as they listen to the claims President Obama and his campaign are making," Ryan said in a statement. "President Obama has chosen not to run on the facts of his record, but he can't run from them."

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland in Florida, Lisa Lambert in Florida, Samuel P. Jacobs in Wisconsin; Writing by John Whitesides; Editing by Alistair Bell and Cynthia Osterman)

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Romney limits attacks on Obama as U.S. recovers from Sandy

1 of 4. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is joined at a campaign rally with (L-R) U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and U.S. Representative Connie Mack (R-FL) in Coral Gables, Florida October 31, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder

By Steve Holland

CORAL GABLES, Florida | Wed Oct 31, 2012 5:36pm EDT

CORAL GABLES, Florida (Reuters) - Presidential candidate Mitt Romney held back from his usual attacks on President Barack Obama on Wednesday with the East Coast reeling from storm Sandy, but the positive tone did not extend to other Republican speakers at his events.

As Obama traveled to New Jersey to survey the damage with Republican Governor Chris Christie, Romney staged a show of strength in Florida, where polls give him a narrow edge in the most populous swing state. He appeared with two of the state's most popular politicians, Senator Marco Rubio and former Governor Jeb Bush.

Rather than blasting Obama for what he typically calls failures to turn around the economy, Romney did not mention Obama's name, instead saying a change in course is needed and that he would bring Americans together if elected on Tuesday.

"Look, we can't go on the road we're on, we can't change course in America if we keep on attacking each other. We have got to come together," he said.

Romney's speeches were evidence of how the campaign has adjusted out of respect for victims of the storm Sandy.

"One of the reasons we're making sure that we're striking a positive tone today is there are some folks that are still dealing with the remnants of the storm today," said senior Romney adviser Kevin Madden.

NO HOLDING BACK FOR BUSH

But other Republican speakers did not hold back.

In his introductory remarks, Bush, brother of former President George W. Bush, accused Obama of dividing Americans rather than focusing on practical economic solutions, pointing out that Obama has frequently blamed Bush for weak economic conditions.

"Do you honestly think that this president is capable of bringing people together? His entire strategy is to blame others - starting with my brother, of course. Basically, he blames every possible thing rather than having the humility to be able to reach out and to find common ground," said Bush.

Other speakers were tougher.

Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart said Obama established a weak foreign policy with a speech to Muslims in Cairo early in his term that he said established the conditions for the September attack by militants on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans were killed. Republicans have frequently accused Obama of setting an apologetic tone for the United States in that speech.

"Now Egypt is controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood. Now, in Libya, they murder our ambassador, kill three other brave Americans and the president is nowhere to be found to answer what happened," Diaz-Balart said.

Romney, who canceled political events earlier this week due to the storm, urged Florida voters to send donations to the Red Cross to help the victims. He said he believed his election next week would also be an example of Americans coming together.

"We come together at times like these. Now people coming together is what's also going to happen on November 7," he said in Tampa, referring to the day after the election.

Romney is doing better in polls in Florida than in Ohio, another crucial state where Obama was 5 percentage points ahead in a New York Times-Quinnipiac University poll on Wednesday.

"He's going to win Florida," Bush told reporters confidently as he boarded Romney's plane.

Romney aides say the race overall is essentially tied. They have taken steps in recent days to try to take advantage of what they see as an opportunity in traditionally Democratic Pennsylvania, where polls have been tightening.

The Romney campaign has spent on advertising in Pennsylvania although there has been no plan for the candidate to travel there.

(Editing by Alistair Bell and Mohammad Zargham)

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Romney takes "feel-your-pain" tone as Sandy slams East Coast

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney speaks at a campaign rally in Davenport, Iowa October 29, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder

By Steve Holland

DAVENPORT, Iowa | Mon Oct 29, 2012 8:16pm EDT

DAVENPORT, Iowa (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was about to go on stage in Ohio on Monday when he decided to abruptly shift the tone of his campaign given the potentially lethal impact of Hurricane Sandy on the East Coast.

With the storm bearing down, Romney canceled campaign events scheduled for Monday and Tuesday in Wisconsin, Iowa and Florida. Running mate Paul Ryan and Romney's wife, Ann, also stepped back from campaigning.

Romney instead adopted a feel-your-pain stance, taking time to talk up Americans' hardy can-do spirit in the face of uncertain odds. He urged people to donate to the Red Cross.

After deliberating by conference call with senior advisers - some of them traveling with Ryan and Ann Romney in several states - it was an easy call to make, aides said.

"We canceled the events out of sensitivity for the millions of people facing hardship because of the hurricane," said senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom.

The hurricane was the latest twist in Romney's second White House bid. Before taking on President Barack Obama in the general election campaign, Romney spent months in a bruising Republican primary fight in which he was rarely in the lead until near the end.

The former governor of Massachusetts appeared to have the momentum in the final lap of the presidential race, climbing in polls after recovering from the September release of a secretly recorded video in which he said 47 percent of Americans were dependent on government help.

A NEW TWIST

Now, Romney's campaign luster is likely to dim for a couple of days as Obama wins media attention as the nation's chief executive managing a crisis.

The Republican's aides said they had little choice but to put off campaigning given the storm's potential impact. They did not think Sandy would complicate the campaign's messaging over the next few days.

"I don't think it will at all," said a senior adviser. "While this is certainly important, the potential damage of this hurricane, the importance of the next four years are about bigger things longer term - the economy and jobs."

Aides said the campaign had been watching the storm since it first came into view last week and knew they had to act.

"We monitored the track and developments closely and adjusted our schedule accordingly as the need arose," said senior adviser Kevin Madden.

The hurricane forced the Romney campaign into some fancy footwork.

He had hoped to hold a campaign event on Tuesday in Wisconsin, which has not been won by a Republican presidential candidate in decades. It would back up the Romney camp's narrative that the Midwestern state is now in play given tightening polls there.

But with the storm blasting ashore along the East Coast, Romney made plans to go back to Ohio, the must-win state where he and Obama have been concentrating much of their energies.

In a move that gives him the appearance of being presidential, Romney told supporters he consulted with officials at the National Weather Service and at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He got an update on the progress of the storm, the status of the federal government's efforts to help state and local authorities and potential challenges in the hours and days ahead.

In Avon Lake, Ohio, Romney toned down some of his attacks on Obama and urged Americans to come together.

"We've faced these kinds of challenges before, and as we have, it's interesting how Americans come together, and this looks like another time when we need to come together all across the country," he said.

(Editing by Alistair Bell and Philip Barbara)

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Obama, Romney virtually tied eight days before U.S. election

1 of 11. U.S. President Barack Obama jogs into a campaign rally in Las Vegas, Nevada October 24, 2012. Obama is on a two-day, eight state, campaign swing.

Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque

WASHINGTON | Mon Oct 29, 2012 12:51pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney were virtually tied in a Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll released on Monday, with the Democrat leading by a single percentage point eight days before the November 6 U.S. presidential election.

Obama leads Romney 48 percent to 47 percent, a 1 percentage point drop for Obama and 1 percentage point rise for Romney from Sunday's tracking poll - still within the daily online survey's 3.9 percentage point credibility interval for likely voters.

"This is all movement around the middle," said Ipsos pollster Julia Clark. "It basically underlines the closeness of the race. I don't think it's going to be too different until the election."

The poll showed that 22 percent of registered voters said they had taken part in early or absentee voting. Among that group, 58 percent said they voted for Obama and 39 percent said they voted for Romney.

The precision of Reuters/Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. Among the 806 likely voters surveyed, the credibility interval is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

(Reporting by Deborah Charles; Editing by Alistair Bell and Will Dunham)

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Obama, Romney curtail campaign events in face of hurricane

1 of 9. U.S. President Barack Obama walks to the Oval Office of the White House upon his return to Washington, October 29, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Jason Reed

By Jeff Mason and Steve Holland

WASHINGTON/DAVENPORT, Iowa | Mon Oct 29, 2012 7:09pm EDT

WASHINGTON/DAVENPORT, Iowa (Reuters) - President Barack Obama suspended campaigning and returned to Washington on Monday to oversee the response to Hurricane Sandy, while his Republican rival Mitt Romney curtailed political events to show respect for the storm's potential victims.

As the storm cuts into the final week of campaigning in an especially close race for the White House, both men are trying to avoid coming across as overtly political while millions of people are imperiled by Sandy's fierce winds and driving rain.

Obama and Romney are virtually tied in the presidential contest, according to a Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll released on Monday. It showed the Democrat leading by a single percentage point eight days before Election Day.

With the hurricane dominating headlines, Obama used the bully pulpit of the White House briefing room to show he was on top of the storm response effort.

He warned Americans in Sandy's path that it could take a long time before power was restored and transportation systems were running again, and he dismissed concerns of the storm's effects on the election.

"I am not worried at this point about the impact on the election. I'm worried about the impact on families, and I'm worried about the impact on our first responders. I'm worried about the impact on our economy and on transportation," Obama told reporters.

"The election will take care of itself next week. Right now our number one priority is to make sure that we are saving lives."

Obama returned to Washington after cutting short a trip to Orlando, Florida, where he had been due to appear at a rally with former President Bill Clinton.

Romney said he was in touch with federal emergency management workers about the storm.

"The damage will probably be significant and, of course, a lot of people will be out of power for a long time," he said in Davenport, Iowa. "So hopefully your thoughts and prayers will join with mine and people across the country as you think about those folks that are in harm's way," he said, urging supporters to donate to the American Red Cross.

Romney canceled further events in Wisconsin on Monday night and in Iowa and Florida on Tuesday. Those states are out of Sandy's path, but the former Massachusetts governor does not want to be seen to be focusing only on the campaign in the midst of potential national disaster.

"Governor Romney believes this is a time for the nation and its leaders to come together to focus on those Americans who are in harm's way," said Romney communications director Gail Gitcho.

SWING STATE BATTLE

Ohio is one of a handful of political swing states that will determine the winner of the November 6 election, and both candidates have spent many days campaigning there.

Obama has held a consistent, if narrow, lead in the state, and his advisers believe his support of the U.S. auto bailout will put him over the top there. Ohio is home to the nation's second largest auto industry.

But a Rasmussen Reports daily tracking poll showed Romney ahead on Monday, getting support from 50 percent of likely voters compared to 48 percent who backed the president.

Clinton, who has been a popular surrogate for Obama, continued to hold events he was to have held with the president, both in Florida and in Ohio, where he joined Vice President Joe Biden on a campaign swing.

"I support Barack Obama because I think he's got a better jobs plan and a better jobs record, a better budget plan, a better education plan, a better healthcare plan than his opponent," Clinton told a cheering crowd in Youngstown, Ohio.

Romney's running mate, Congressman Paul Ryan, campaigned in Florida, telling a crowd of 2,300 in Fernandina Beach that the Romney campaign would be turning its attention to helping people affected by the storm.

"We're staying in touch with regional leaders. We're offering assistance. We are collecting storm relief and supplies in our field offices in Virginia and Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, up and down the Eastern Seaboard," Ryan said.

Obama officials said the president's campaign schedule would be determined on a day-to-day basis. He scrapped another event scheduled for Tuesday in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and would remain at the White House, aides said.

Obama delivered pizzas to a local campaign office in Florida on Sunday night and told volunteers that the burden would increase for them because he would have to curtail his campaign activities there in coming days.

Florida, Wisconsin and Iowa also are critical swing states in the election, along with Colorado, Nevada, New Hampshire and Virginia.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Sam Jacobs, and Lisa Lambert; Editing by Alistair Bell and Paul Simao)

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