In Virginia, Obama and Romney Reach Out to Military President Obama made his entrance Thursday at a campaign event at Farm Bureau Live, an amphitheater in Virginia Beach. VIRGINIA BEACH - In case anyone is wondering, Virginia is up for grabs this election. So, with 39 days to go, President Obama and Mitt Romney dueled in the commonwealth on Thursday, both trying to lock up support from voters with ties to the military. President Obama yelled out at the sea of white, brown and black faces gathered before him at Farm Bureau Live, an outdoor amphitheater in this naval town. Appearing just a few miles from the shipyard where his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, last month named Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin as his running mate, Mr. Obama was fighting hard to loosen the Republican Party's traditional grip on military votes. Virginia Beach and Norfolk are crucial to both campaigns" hopes of winning this state in what is now widely viewed as one of the closest races in the remaining swing states. To that end, just six days before the first debate, both candidates made another of their frequent visits to Virginia. Mr. Romney campaigned at a veterans event in the Washington suburb of Springfield, where he promised to stop "devastating job losses" among veterans if he is elected. He also proposed more help for service members returning from war in need of psychological treatment. He also vowed to build an American military "so strong that no one wants to test it." Virginia has 13 electoral votes, but pathways to victory for either man, particularly Mr. Romney, get steeper if the state is taken out of their column. With each day that moves him closer to Nov. 6, and perhaps because of recent polling that shows him ahead in Ohio and Florida, the president has appeared more relaxed, almost as if he is starting to enjoy himself. Surrounded by 7,000 screaming supporters - a crowd as diverse as the Tidewater region, with its naval base and countless veterans, has become - Mr. Obama seemed determined to hang on to his small but steady lead in Virginia polls. How's it going, Virginia Beach? Mr. Obama shouted into the microphone. He quickly attached himself to Senator Jim Webb, the retired Marine who had introduced him in a lengthy windup that trumpeted the president's support for military families. "I could not be prouder of a man who has served his country his entire life, as a Marine, as a secretary of the Navy," the president said of Mr. Webb, who is not seeking re-election. The crowd ate it up, especially as they were primed beforehand by the cast of colorful characters that make up Virginia Democratic politics. Representative Robert C. Scott, sporting an accent straight out of "Dukes of Hazzard," seemed a particular favorite. He drew roars when he recounted how in 2008, CNN called Virginia for Obama for the first Democratic presidential win here in 40 years, and then, "two minutes later," called the election for Mr. Obama. It was a story meant to demonstrate how central winning the state has become to American presidential aspirations. As is now becoming the norm before the president comes on stage, when Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" - part of the campaign playlist - came on, the crowd took over, belting it out the way the president did at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. By the time Mr. Webb came out to introduce the president, the din sounded like a Bruce Springsteen concert. The Obama campaign also unleashed a new two-minute television ad in which Mr. Obama pitches an economic plan he says will create one million manufacturing jobs, cut oil imports and increase education jobs. He characterized it as a "new economic patriotism." Mr. Romney was tying himself to the military as well. He talked about his experience on Wednesday night in Toledo, when his private charter plane was getting ready to take off as an honor flight - full of veterans who had spent the day in Washington visiting the war memorials - was returning home. Mr. Romney delayed his own flight in order to greet all of the veterans as they walked down the gangway of their plane, and one elderly, wheelchair-bound World War II veteran, he said, stood out in his mind. Mr. Romney also talked about how, as governor of Massachusetts, he was attending a ceremony to send his state's servicemen and -women off to Iraq and Afghanistan, when one of the soldiers raised his hand with an interesting proposal. "He said, "I have a young lady that I'm in love with, and we haven't been married and I'm going to go off to conflict - could you marry us?" " Mr. Romney said. "And I said, "I don't see why not." " He said he called the two up to the front of the audience and married them right there. Helene Cooper reported from Virginia Beach, and Ashley Parker from Springfield, Va.