Obama, Romney return to campaign trail

Mitt Romney toned down attacks on Barack Obama while the president was in storm-battered New Jersey, but Obama was to return to the campaign trail Thursday. The Republican presidential nominee, who like the president had paused his campaigning as Hurricane Sandy moved up the East Coast, urged supporters in swing state Florida Wednesday to donate to the American Red Cross. And in a shift from the daily blistering attacks he leveled on Obama before the storm, Romney did not directly criticize or even mention Obama by name on the stump, The Washington Times reported. The former Massachusetts governor instead said the nation's path had created a limping economy where college graduates struggled to find work and 47 million people depended on food stamps. "I believe that this is the year for us to take a different course," Romney told supporters in Coral Gables. "I will bring real change and real reform," he said, appropriating Obama's 2008 "change" slogan. "I don't just talk about change -- I actually have a plan to execute change and make it happen." Romney was to hold three campaign events in battleground state Virginia Thursday. Obama, who last campaigned Sunday, a day before Sandy battered the mid-Atlantic region, surveyed some of New Jersey's worst damage Wednesday. In a political twist, he toured the damage with Romney surrogate Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. "The entire country has been watching what's been happening," Obama said at a shelter set up in Brigantine, N.J., 5 miles from Atlantic City. "Everybody knows how hard Jersey has been hit." Christie, normally a strong critic of Obama, praised the president for his disaster management. "It's been a great working relationship to make sure that we're doing the jobs that people elected us to do," Christie told reporters after touring the devastation with Obama. "I cannot thank the president enough for his personal concern and compassion for our state and for the people of our state." "Governor Christie is doing his job," top Romney adviser Russ Schriefer said in a conference call with reporters. "He is the governor of a state that has been hit by a very, very horrific storm.'' GOP leaders said the image of Christie standing with Obama would have no effect on Romney's campaign. Obama's campaign scheduled a whirlwind day for the president Thursday. He was to fly from Washington to Green Bay, Wis., for a morning campaign event, then to Las Vegas for an afternoon event, then to Denver for an evening event and then to Columbus, Ohio, arriving after 1 a.m., where he would spend the night.