RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.
Here's what's happening in the presidential race. Republican Mitt Romney is attacking President Obama for cronyism. Romney contends that Obama campaign donors got alternative energy grants.
MONTAGNE: Romney is trying to return to the offensive after being slammed over his own record. President Obama and his campaign have been questioning Romney's business background.
INSKEEP: And the candidates, as well as their backers, are raising money for more campaigning. An independent group supporting Romney says it raised $20 million in June.
MONTAGNE: In the three months that ended in June, the fundraising operation for Romney's campaign says it raised $140 million.
INSKEEP: NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson has been traveling with the target of that spending: President Obama.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: The Obama campaign has been pummeling Romney for outsourcing jobs when he ran a private equity firm. Yesterday, at a town hall meeting in Cincinnati, President Obama offered a new twist on that attack, charging that Romney's economic policies would have the same result.
(SOUNDBITE OF TOWN HALL MEETING)
LIASSON: The president was citing an analysis in the journal Tax Notes that said Romney's plan to eliminate taxes on corporation's foreign income would encourage companies to shift their operations overseas. The Romney campaign is firing back. In an interview on Fox News yesterday morning, Romney accused the president of trying to divert attention from his own failure to create jobs.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOX NEWS BROADCAST)
LIASSON: In an effort to get back on offense after days of responding to attacks on his tenure at Bain Capital and his refusal to release more than two years of tax returns, Romney accused the president of political cronyism.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOX NEWS BROADCAST)
LIASSON: And the Romney campaign sent out a memo from its pollster, saying the attacks against Romney weren't working because the race has been tightening in Romney's favor.
But the Obama campaign is confident, and it points to Romney's unprecedented decision on Friday to give five network interviews - unusual for a politician who has, in general, kept a low profile with the national media other than Fox News.
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LIASSON: The Obama campaign released a new ad...
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LIASSON: ...set to the soundtrack of Romney singing "America the Beautiful."
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LIASSON: It features headlines about Romney's Swiss Bank accounts and offshore funds in the Cayman Islands. Then the Romney campaign released its version of a singing candidate ad.
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LIASSON: Theirs is a web video featuring President Obama's short tenor solo...
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LIASSON: ...over ominous headlines about Democratic donors receiving White House perks.
Romney had no public events yesterday. He appeared at a fundraiser at the River Hill Country Club in Jackson, Mississippi. Back in Ohio, President Obama was trying to fire up the troops at the Cincinnati Music Hall.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
LIASSON: He was trying to remind voters of one advantage polls show he has over Mitt Romney: his ability to relate to ordinary people.
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LIASSON: Mitt Romney will be campaigning in Ohio, too. He'll be back in the state on Wednesday.
Mara Liasson, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
