Obama assails Romney in bid for women's vote

President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign rally, Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012, in Las Vegas. The president is on a two-day tour of key battleground states that included stops in Iowa and Colorado on Wednesday and was scheduled to head to Florida, Virginia and Ohio on Thursday.
President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign rally, Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012, in Las Vegas. The president is on a two-day tour of key battleground states that included stops in Iowa and Colorado on Wednesday and was scheduled to head to Florida, Virginia and Ohio on Thursday.

— Seeking to shore up his support among women voters, President Barack Obama on Thursday hammered Republican rival Mitt Romney anew over his backing of Richard Mourdock, the Indiana Senate candidate drawing fire for saying that pregnancies that result from rape are “something God intended.”

“Unlike some other leaders in the Republican Party, like John McCain, Mitt Romney hasn’t questioned his endorsement of Richard Mourdock or ever once stood up to the most extreme elements of his own party. Instead, he tapes ads for them,” Obama’s campaign says in an online video. His aides haven’t ruled out the possibility of using a similar message in TV ads in battleground states in the coming days as the president looks to break open a race national polls show is close.

While a Romney campaign aide has said he disagreed with Mourdock’s remark, the Republican presidential nominee is standing by Mourdock and hasn’t asked the Indiana state treasurer to take down a TV ad Romney filmed for him earlier this week.

Beyond the statement from an aide, the Republican nominee and his aides have worked to avoid the subject. Romney did not speak to reporters or address Mourdock’s remarks during two public appearances Wednesday. His aides sometimes speak to reporters traveling on Romney’s campaign plane but did not appear Wednesday, and were scarce at Romney’s rallies. They ignored repeated e-mailed questions about Mourdock.

Meanwhile, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a longtime Republican, is sticking with Obama in this year’s election.

He told CBS This Morning that he respects Romney but thinks he’s been vague on many issues.

Speaking of Obama, Powell said the president got the United States out of Iraq and has laid out a plan for leaving Afghanistan “and didn’t get us into any new wars.”

He praises Obama’s economic performance, saying that while difficult choices are ahead on taxes, spending and budgetary policies, “steadily, I think we’ve begun to come out of the dive and we’re gaining altitude.” Powell, a retired general, also formerly was a White House chief of staff and chairman of the military’s Joint Chief of Staffs.

Powell says that he’s still a Republican.

Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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