Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, speaks at a campaign event in Bow, N.H., Friday, July 20, 2012.
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — Silenced for a weekend, the race for the White House reverted to divisive form Monday, as President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney found enough distance from a national tragedy to get back to the politics of getting elected.
Obama tried to put the squeeze on Romney, with the president's campaign aides demanding "substantive" expectations for the Romney's upcoming trip to England, Israel and Poland. Headed for Nevada, Obama was touting his foreign policy record to the Veterans of Foreign Wars a day before Romney addresses the group.
Romney, addressing donors, returned to his critique that Obama is "out of ideas, out of excuses, and we've got to make sure in November we put him out of office." He cautioned the public not to look to government for answers in response to the Colorado shooting. Instead, he urged people to reach out locally to help people in need.
Still in the shadow of a rampage that united the nation in grief, the campaigns weighed how much and how fast to calibrate their tones. They seemed intent on returning to the business of defining their message and their opponents, albeit not quite yet with the vitriol of earlier weeks.
The race is tight, both nationally and in the select states expected to decide the outcome, polls show.
That leaves little time for either side to dial down.
Foreign policy and national security, marginalized in this economy-centered election year, moved briefly to the fore.
In a conference call with reporters, Obama campaign officials challenged Romney to offer specific policy ideas during his three-country trip this week. Romney's travels are highly anticipated as a measure of how well he can stand up on the world stage. Obama took an even broader such trip as a candidate in 2008.
"If Romney wants to be president, if he is ready to be commander in chief, he needs to prove that he's willing to have open and honest discussions about his world views, about his beliefs, about his policies with some of our strongest allies," said Michele Flournoy, a campaign adviser and former top policy official at the Pentagon.
Four years ago, trying to burnish his own credentials against military hero Sen. John McCain, Obama traveled extensively to the Middle East and Europe, with stops in both war fronts of Afghanistan and Iraq. Obama adviser Robert Gibbs said the question for Romney is whether his trip "will be similar substantively" for voters.
