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Mitt Romney crushed President Obama in the first presidential debate Wednesday night, which changed everything, until a good jobs report changed everything again Friday morning. It's the last month of the presidential campaign, and here's what the candidates will be doing in the final crush to convince a couple hundred thousand people in nine states they should be elected.
Barack Obama
Talk about the economy. As Romney has started talking about the economy less, Obama has the chance to talk about it more, with a jobs report Friday showing unemployment falling to 7.8 percent. The White House issued a statement saying, "While there is more work that remains to be done, today’s employment report provides further evidence that the U.S. economy is continuing to heal from the wounds inflicted by the worst downturn since the Great Depression." Romney had been saying Obama had failed to live up to his promise to bring unemployment under 8 percent, and now he can't say that anymore.
Highlight all his money. "In a display of strength intended to offset Democratic nervousness," The New York Times' Jim Rutenberg and Peter Baker report, the Obama campaign leaked that it had raised a whole bunch of money in September. Exactly how much isn't clear, though it's more than the $114 million raised in August. The Wall Street Journal pegged the number at $150 million.