GOP nominee Mitt Romney began his final weekend campaign blitz in New Hampshire Saturday morning, ripping President Obama for telling supporters that "voting is the best revenge." 
 
 "Vote for revenge? Let me tell you: Vote for love of country," Romney said to cheers. 
 
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 Obama made the remark at a Friday rally after supporters booed Romney. “No, no, no. Don't boo. Vote,” Obama told a crowd in Springfield, Ohio. “Voting is the best revenge.” 
 
 The GOP nominee jumped on the comment later that day, and his campaign released an ad attacking the president for it Saturday morning. 
 
 The Obama campaign said Saturday that the president's comment was made in the context of Romney's “scare tactics.” 
 
 Spokeswoman Psaki said a Romney TV ad running in the state that suggests Chrysler was moving production of Jeep models to China was an attempt at “frightening workers in Ohio into thinking, falsely, that they’re not going to have a job.” 
 
 “And the message he was sending is if you don’t like the policies, if you don’t like the plan that Gov. Romney is putting forward, if you think that’s a bad deal for the middle class, then you can go to the voting booth and cast your ballot,” Psaki said. “It’s nothing more complicated than that.” 
 
 At rallies Saturday in Mentor, Ohio, and Milwaukee, Obama again used his "don't boo, vote" line, but he did repeat the revenge comment. 
 
 The president did, however, attack Romney on the Jeep ads during the Ohio appearance. 
 
 “Changing the facts when they’re inconvenient to your campaign, that’s definitely not change,” Obama said at the rally in Mentor, Ohio. “But that’s what Gov. Romney’s been doing these last few weeks right here in Ohio.” 
 
 Team Obama continued to get questions about the “revenge” remark on a conference call with reporters late Saturday afternoon. 
 
 Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt did not repeat Psaki’s explanation that Obama was referring to the Jeep ads. Instead he said Obama’s revenge comment was just replacing his common “don’t’ boo, vote” refrain. 
 
 “If you disagree that we should return to the same policies that crashed the economy and devastated the middle class in the first place, the place to make your voice heard is at the polls, and that’s exactly what the president addressed last night,” LaBolt said. 
 
 LaBolt also took a shot at the Romney campaign for focusing on the comment. 
 
 “It’s interesting that that’s the closing argument that the Romney campaign is making. I think that it seems very small,” LaBolt said. 
 
 While Romney and Obama are deadlocked in most national polls, the president has held the lead in most swing-state polls, including those in every state Romney is visiting this weekend. While Romney's momentum following the first presidential debate seemed to be dissipating by the end of the week, to some observers it seems that Hurricane Sandy further stalled it — and gave President Obama a boost. 
 
 “If you hadn’t had the storm, there would have been more of a chance for the Romney campaign to talk about the deficit, the debt, the economy. There was a stutter in the campaign. When you have attention drawn away to somewhere else, to something else, it is not to [Romney's] advantage,” top Republican strategist Karl Rove told The Washington Post Friday night. 
 
 The president visited Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters early Saturday before leaving for appearances in Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and Virginia. 
 
 After a briefing and conference call on Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts, Obama said that his team was putting “120 percent” into making sure communities have the resources they need, adding that “there's nothing more important than us getting this right.” 
 
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 Romney also touched on bipartisanship during his New Hampshire appearance. After criticizing President Obama for last meeting with Republican leaders in Congress in July, Romney promised to do better. 
 
 "You know that if the president were to be reelected he would not be able to work with Congress, you know there would be more gridlock… the president just can't work with Congress, he's proven that time and time again," he said. "We can do it, I've done it before. We're going to work in Washington to help the people." 
 
 Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith said Romney has never worked across the aisle. 
 
 "Despite his claims in the final days of this race, Romney refused to work with Democrats as governor. And throughout this campaign, he has shown himself to be too weak to stand up to the far-right wing of the Republican Party – whether it’s Grover Norquist, Richard Mourdock, or the architects of Republican obstruction in Congress," Smith said. 
 
 Romney went further in an afternoon Iowa appearance, warning that the partisan gridlock that's gripped Washington the last two years will lead to more fights over the debt ceiling if Obama is reelected. 
 
 "There'll be a shutdown of government or a default. Can you imagine four more years of that?" he said. 
 
 Romney will also be in Colorado later on Saturday. 
 
 Romney also delivered the Republicans' weekly radio address on Saturday, touting his business experience and promising to kick-start the economy with his five-point economic plan. 
 
 "The question of this election comes down to this: Do you want more of the same or do you want real change? President Obama promised change, but he could not deliver it. I promise change, and I have a record of achieving it," he said. We need a real turnaround if we are going to get our economy growing and get Americans working again. And I’ve led that kind of effort many times before." 
 
 --This report was originally published at 12:26 p.m. and last updated at 6:47 p.m. ||||| Reaching for the finish line, Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama embarked Saturday on the final 72-hour haul of their long, grinding quest for victory, swatting at one another over what should motivate Americans to vote and making closing arguments that offer dueling pictures of what the next four years can and should bring. 
 
 President Barack Obama is seen boarding Air Force One before his departure from Andrews Air Force Base, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012. Obama traveling for the campaign events in Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and Virginia... (Associated Press) 
 
 The crowd cheers as Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and wife Ann Romney campaign at Portsmouth International Airport, in Newington, N.H., Saturday, Nov. 3,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney carries one of his grandsons as he steps off his campaign plane at Pease International Airport in Portsmouth, N.H., early Saturday,... (Associated Press) 
 
 President Barack Obama visits the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for an update on the recovery from Hurricane Sandy that hit New York and New Jersey especially hard earlier this week, Saturday... (Associated Press) 
 
 Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney picks up Levi Vandenberg, five months, of Dover, N.H., as he greets a ropeline of supporters as he campaigns at Portsmouth International... (Associated Press) 
 
 Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and wife Ann Romney wave to the crowd as they campaign at Portsmouth International Airport, in Newington, N.H., Saturday, Nov.... (Associated Press) 
 
 Romney opened a three-state campaign day in New Hampshire by faulting Obama for telling supporters a day earlier that voting would be their "best revenge" 
 
 "Vote for revenge?" the GOP candidate asked, oozing incredulity. "I'd like to tell him what I'd tell you: Vote for love of country. It's time to lead America to a better place." 
 
 The GOP nominee released a TV ad carrying the same message 
 
 Obama tended to presidential business before politics as he led a briefing at the government's disaster relief agency on the federal response to Superstorm Sandy. He said the recovery effort still has a long way to go but pledging a "120 percent effort" by all those involved. Then he began his own three-state campaign day in Ohio, the biggest battleground of Campaign 2012. 
 
 After holding mostly small and midsize rallies for much of the campaign, Obama's team is planning a series of larger events this weekend aimed at drawing big crowds in battleground states. Still, the campaign isn't expecting to draw the massive audiences Obama had in the closing days of the 2008 race, when his rallies drew more than 50,000. 
 
 Obama's closing weekend also includes two joint events with former President Bill Clinton: a rally Saturday night in Virginia and an event Sunday in New Hampshire. The two presidents had planned to campaign together across three states earlier this week, but that trip was called off because of Sandy. And, of course, there is always Ohio. 
 
 In a whiff of 2008 nostalgia, some of Obama's traveling companions from his campaign four years ago were planning to join him on the road for the final days of his last campaign. Among them are Robert Gibbs, who served as Obama's first White House press secretary, and Reggie Love, Obama's former personal aide who left the White House earlier this year. 
 
 Likewise, virtually Romney's entire senior team has left the campaign's Boston headquarters to travel with Romney for the contest's final three days. Most will connect with Romney at his Saturday morning New Hampshire event. 
 
 Their presence for the campaign's waning hours is an admission that the strategy and planning is largely complete. His schedule has been set, the ads have been placed, and Romney's message has been decided. 
 
 The tight inner circle that has worked with him for several years in most cases plan to enjoy the final moments on the campaign trail as Romney's side. 
 
 "It's been a long road," Ann Romney told reporters aboard the campaign plane, offering breakfast pastries to Secret Service agents and reporters alike. After campaigning on her own for the past month, she hooked up with her husband for the final swing. 
 
 Romney hosted a massive rally Friday night in West Chester, Ohio, drawing more than 10,000 people to the Cincinnati area for an event that featured rock stars, sports celebrities and dozens of Republican officials. It was a high-energy event on a cold night designed to kick off his own sprint to the finish. 
 
 Romney arrived in New Hampshire close to midnight on Friday after an 18-hour day on the campaign trail that took him from Virginia to Wisconsin to Ohio. After his morning rally on the New Hampshire seacoast, he was making an afternoon appearance in Iowa, and two more in Colorado. He shifted an original plan to campaign in Nevada on Sunday in favor of a schedule likely to bring him back to Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. 
 
 On Saturday, Obama's first stop was in Mentor, Ohio, then he was campaigning in Milwaukee and Dubuque, Iowa, and ending the day in Bristow, Va. On Sunday, he was taking his campaign to New Hampshire, Florida, Colorado and, yes, Ohio. 
 
 Polling shows the race remains a toss-up heading into the final days. But Romney still has the tougher path; he must win more of the nine most-contested states to reach 270 electoral votes: Ohio, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado, Nevada, Wisconsin, Iowa and New Hampshire. 
 
 Romney has added Pennsylvania to the mix, hoping to end a streak of five presidential contests where the Democratic candidate prevailed in the state. Obama won Pennsylvania by more than 10 percentage points in 2008; the latest polls in the state give him a 4- to 5-point margin. Romney will campaign in the Philadelphia suburbs on Sunday. Obama aides scoff at the Romney incursion, but they are carefully adding television spending in the state and are sending Clinton to campaign there Monday. 
 
 In crucial early voting, Obama holds an apparent lead over Romney in key states. But Obama's advantage isn't as big as the one he had over John McCain four years ago, giving Romney hope that he could make up that gap in Tuesday's election. 
 
 About 25 million people already have voted in 34 states and the District of Columbia. No votes will be counted until Election Day, but several battleground states are releasing the party affiliation of people who have voted early. So far, Democratic voters outnumber Republicans in Florida, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio. Republicans have the edge in Colorado. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Kuhnhenn reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Julie Pace and Stephen Ohlemacher in Washington and Kasie Hunt in New Hampshire contributed to this report. 
 
 Follow Jim Kuhnhenn on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/jkuhnhenn ||||| The Mitt Romney for President general election campaign, which is finally reaching the hypothetical comedy potential of an entity called the “Mitt Romney for President general election campaign,” refuses to back down on its calls for an apology from its rival campaign. “Romney defends calls for an apology over Bain attacks,” an actual headline reads today. As all the savvy Beltway insider consultant people will tell you, any candidate who finds himself “defending calls for an apology” is basically a lock to win any election. This is a campaign that’s competent, hard-hitting, and always on the offensive. Remember that pathetic “best political ad ever made” YouTube that the Obama campaign released this weekend? Another amateur chess move from the sucky-chesser-in-chief. Because now Romney’s campaign has released a much more crushing response ad, that shows Obama singing well, and people enjoying it. What now, Kenyan? 
 
 The Romney ad, “Political Payoffs And Middle Class Layoffs,” shows the president singing well for a few seconds while the unemployment rate is high. Even worse, it reveals that the Obama campaign funds itself with money from “donors,” who congregate at secret gatherings known as “fund-raisers.” This hush-hush arrangement flies in the face of the campaign’s official story that all of its money is cut from the tanned leather of locally raised unicorn. 
 
 And good luck trying to shape the narrative, Obama campaign, when Mitt Romney adds a commanding media presence like Tim Pawlenty to the ticket. “I play hockey,” TPAW will say, and everyone will care. 
 
 [TPM]
– Mitt Romney has stirred up a few headlines today over a little matter of revenge. Stumping in New Hampshire, Romney criticized President Obama for urging supporters to vote because "voting is the best revenge." Romney said, "Vote for revenge? Let me tell you: Vote for love of country." His campaign also released a "revenge"-themed ad. But The Hill reports that Obama made the remark yesterday to calm a Springfield, Ohio, crowd that was booing Romney. "No, no, no," Obama said. "Don't boo. Vote. Voting is the best revenge." The presidential camps are also exchanging volleys over Romney's auto company ad and the effect of Superstorm Sandy on the campaign. One subject that seems off the table: Benghazi security, perhaps because Romney doesn't want to expose CIA Director David Petraeus to criticism, writes Michael Crowley at Time. But two major newspapers—the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal—have picked up the slack by slamming Obama on the issue, reports the Weekly Standard.