Obama signals new urgency as race tightens

October 9, 2012, 4:00 a.m.

SAN FRANCISCO -- With each passing day, it seems that President Obama has increasingly absorbed the impact of his weak debate showing against Mitt Romney. And as he's eager for his supporters to know that he knows it's time to step up his game.

"I am pretty competitive, and I very much intend to win this election," he told a group of donors here Monday night.

Part of that process is testing new lines playing off the debate. On Sunday night in Los Angeles, he played the humility card, admitting for the first time an inconsistent performance.

On Monday in San Francisco, he had a new attack on Romney for, in his mind, abandoning the hard-right positions he espoused to win the primaries in favor of a new centrist message. Romney may as well have said to voters, "Don't pay any attention to that tax cut behind the curtain," Obama jabbed, in reference to his view that Romney's economic plan would further deepen the deficit to provide new benefits to the wealthy.

More:

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-obama-race-tightens-20121009,0,5839675.story