Obama Calls for Economic Patriotism in Virginia

President Barack Obama called for new economic patriotism as he tried to get he military voters in Virginia. The president said that it was patriotic to support policies that would help middle-income voters.

President Obama spoke before a crowd of around 7,000 in Virginia Beach. He said that economic growth is hard to achieve and it would take several years to go over the hurdles that were placed over decades. He maintained that the problems could be solved.

The patriotism angle was added into President Obama’s speech in order to get the votes of the state’s large population of veterans. His message was consistent with his tax policies and social programs that support the middle class.

Obama’s campaign wanted to describe Republican rival Mitt Romney as someone who was out of touch with the average Americans. Democratic Senator Jim Webb introduced the president during the event. He criticized Romney for not mentioning veterans during his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.

Virginia is one of the swing states that could decide the results of the presidential election. President Obama has visited the state 14 times this year. During the same time that the president was in Virginia, Romney was speaking in northern Virginia.

President Obama won Virginia in 2008. That was the first time the state voted for a Democrat in a presidential election since 1964. At present, he has a lead of 4.5 percentage points according to the recent polls.

The Obama campaign released a new TV ad Thursday that featured the president talking about his record and his plans for the second term. He said that when he took office, the nation was losing almost 800,000 jobs a month. He also said that at present, he believes that the nation is going forward but there is still more things to do to give Americans work and secure the middle class.