“Typically, presidential candidates lie low while the opposing party holds its convention. But with little more than two months to go until the election and polls showing a tight race, Obama decided to hit the trail for a two-day, three-college-town tour, scheduled to culminate with a rally Wednesday near the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville,” USA Today writes. “At Iowa State, Obama paused before his stump speech to say that the people of the Gulf Coast, who are bracing for Hurricane Isaac to make landfall, were in his thoughts. In Colorado and Iowa, Obama and Romney are locked in close races, according to polls. And the Colorado State and Iowa State campuses — and the communities surrounding them — are crucial areas within the swing states the president is counting on to turn out voters in November.”
“President Obama is tapping Senator John F. Kerry to deliver a speech focused on national security issues during the closing night of next week’s Democratic National Convention,” The Boston Globe writes. “The three-day gathering in Charlotte, N.C., will have a heavy national security focus, underscoring the administration’s intention to highlight its work to end combat operations in Iraq, draw down US forces in Afghanistan, and approve a military raid that killed terrorist Osama bin Laden and contrast these accomplishments with the rhetoric of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney."
“The Obama camp, eager to showcase what officials view as the president’s sterling record on foreign policy (and Mitt Romney’s lack of experience on global issues), is designating a special night at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte next week as national security night,” the New York Times writes. “And it’s Thursday no less—the night of President Obama’s big acceptance speech.”
