US race getting tighter

The US President Barack Obama's campaign intensified attacks yesterday on Mitt Romney's honesty as it tried to halt the Republican challenger's momentum after a strong first debate performance.

Romney's people hit back, and did so sarcastically, depicting Obama's people as childish sore losers after he came across as flat, nervous and unassertive during their first face-to-face encounter in Denver, Colorado.

As both sides gear up for a debate this week between the vice-presidential candidates, the race for the November 6 election has degenerated into a testy back-and-forth over who advocates what and how the other side spins it.

Romney's ideas for rejuvenating a listless economy by getting more money into consumers' wallets and purses include a package of tax cuts that the Obama side says, citing a non-partisan think tank, would amount to $5-trillion over the next 10 years.

At the debate, Obama mentioned the package several times, and that big number.

Romney essentially said he did not know what the president was talking about, and insisted any tax cuts he enacted would be offset by closing tax loopholes and ending deductions, so the effect on the deficit would be nil.

Robert Gibbs, a senior Obama strategist, conceded that the former Massachusetts governor did very well at the debate in Denver.

"But the underpinnings and foundations of that performance were fundamentally dishonest," Gibbs said on the ABC programme This Week.

"If you're willing to say anything to get elected president, if you are willing to make up your positions and walk away from them, I think the American people have to understand, how can they trust you if you are elected president," Gibbs said.

"It's impossible," top Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod said, insisting Romney has failed to name even one such loophole he would shut and that even if he closed all the ones enjoyed by wealthy Americans, he would fall far short of making his plan revenue-neutral.

Last week, the Obama campaign put out an attack ad about Romney allegedly disavowing his own tax plans, and entitled it simply "Dishonest".

Yesterday, Romney's side returned fire with an ad that says Obama "continues to distort" Romney's economic plan.

The new Romney ad features a sound bite from Stephanie Cutter, Obama's deputy campaign manager, telling CNN: "Well, OK, stipulated, it won't be near $5-trillion."

The next debate is on October 16.