They spoke to a crowd of thousands of supporters who were warmed up to the singing of country music star John Rich of the group Big and Rich.
Romney said that Obama’s reelection effort has become the “incredibly shrinking campaign.”
President Obama defined the symptoms of “Romnesia,” a disorder he jokingly describes as Mitt Romney’s changing of opinions to please different groups of voters.
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“Have you been watching the Obama campaign lately. It’s absolutely remarkable,” Romney said. “They have no agenda.”
But speaking to the tightness of this race, even as Ryan and Romney spoke, a crowd of Obama supporters gathered and shouted “Obama. Four More Years,” drowning out parts of Romney’s 20-minute speech.
Romney’s debate partner, Sen. Rob Portman, as well as top advisers Stuart Stevens, Beth Myers and Dan Senor joined him on the flight to Florida.
It was Romney’s commanding performance in the first presidential debate two weeks ago — along with Obama’s widely panned showing — that reconfigured a race in which the president had been ahead.
Romney on Friday released a new television ad titled “Bringing People Together.” It emphasized his bipartisan credentials, though some Democrats in Massachusetts say Romney worked only sporadically with them during his governorship. But the Romney campaign also apparently senses vulnerability on the subject for Obama, whose political brand in his 2008 campaign was built around his ability to transcend partisan divides.
Yet it was a highly partisan president who spoke on Friday in an open field at George Mason University in the critical battleground state of Virginia. Obama drew chants of “Four more years!” as he bounded onto a podium draped with two blue signs reading “Women’s Health Security.’’
Obama portrayed Romney as a “throwback to the 1950s” who would restrict women’s rights, favor the wealthy and squeeze the middle class.
During his riff on what he called “Romnesia,’’ Obama said: “I’m not a medical doctor, but I — but I do want to go over some of the symptoms with you because I want to make sure nobody else catches it.’’
The crowd hooted.
Obama then listed a series of what he called position changes by Romney, focusing on women’s issues. “You know, if you say you’re for equal pay for equal work, but you keep refusing to say whether or not you’d sign a bill that protects equal pay for equal work, you might have ‘Romnesia,’ ’’ Obama said. “If you say women should have access to contraceptive care, but you support legislation that would let your employer deny you contraceptive care, you might have a case of ‘Romnesia.’ ”
The president drew his loudest applause by bringing up the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Chuckling, he said: “If you come down with a case of ‘Romnesia’ and you can’t seem to remember the policies that are still on your Web site, or the promises that you’ve made over the six years you’ve been running for president, here’s the good news: Obamacare covers preexisting conditions.’’
“We can fix you up. We’ve got a cure. We can make you well, Virginia. This is a curable disease.’’
Nia-Malika Henderson, Felicia Sonmez and Philip Rucker contributed to this report.
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