Scott Horsley

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You could say that the presidential campaign got a jolt of energy this week. President Obama was in Iowa yesterday, touting the electric potential of wind power. Republican rival Mitt Romney was in Ohio, talking up that old standby, coal. Each man accused the other of standing in the way of a rival energy source.

NPR's Scott Horsley has more.

President Obama began a three day bus tour of Iowa on Monday. He held up the stalled out farm bill as an example of uncompromising Republican congressional leaders and an appropriate role for the federal government.

President Obama says he wants this campaign to be about ideas and differing outlooks for the future. The selection of Rep. Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney's running mate offers the chance for just such a fight. Ryan is the author of a conservative and controversial budget.

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We're going to start this morning by visiting two swing states seen as crucial to each presidential candidate: one is Florida, the other Colorado, where President Obama this week sampled Mexican food in Pueblo, courted women voters in Denver, and dropped by the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

Our coverage starts with NPR's Scott Horsley.

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And I'm Melissa Block. President Obama barnstormed through Colorado today holding rallies in Pueblo and Colorado Springs. It's his second full day in the state, one of a handful of battlegrounds that could decide the November election. As NPR's Scott Horsley reports, the president touted his support for clean energy and reached out to Colorado's growing Latino population.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

President Obama is in the midst of a two-day campaign swing through Colorado. The Rocky Mountain West is a key battleground area in the November election. A new poll shows the president leading Mitt Romney among women in the state but trailing his Republican rival among Colorado men. NPR's Scott Horsley reports.

The stock market rallied on Friday's jobs report, with the Dow Jones industrial average jumping more than 200 points. But what do the numbers mean for the political stocks of President Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney? That's harder to measure.

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A year ago today, Congress and President Obama stepped back from the brink. They agreed to a deal to raise the federal debt ceiling and prevented disastrous government default. But the tortured process left no one satisfied. The government lost its triple-A bond rating. The stock market plunged. And President Obama and Congress both saw their approval ratings plummet.

As NPR's Scott Horsley reports, the summer gridlock of 2011 helped set the stage for everything that's followed in 2012.

President Obama campaigns is campaigning in Ohio, Florida and Virginia. While Ohio and Florida are perennial battlegrounds, Virginia has emerged as one of this year's most important contests. Volunteers backing President Obama fanned out across the state over the weekend, looking to line up support.

In the days since the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colo., there's been little discussion of the laws that allowed the gunman to acquire his arsenal.

Authorities say suspect James Holmes, who was arrested at the scene of the shooting that killed 12 people and wounded dozens more, was armed with a modified assault rifle, two pistols, a shotgun and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, told CNN this weekend that the guns are not the problem.

This week Republican challenger Mitt Romney accused President Obama of crediting government for small business success. That distorts what Mister Obama actually said, but behind the brickbats is a real and important debate over the role of government.

President Obama's campaign continues to hammer presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney over the GOP challenger's refusal to release more of his tax returns. Romney has provided one year's record and promised a second year's worth of returns. But even some of his fellow Republicans now say that's not enough.

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As Mitt Romney defends his business record, President Barack Obama is on the campaign trail. He'll be in the suburbs of Richmond, Virginia and Washington, D.C. today. Yesterday, the president traveled to the Tidewater region of southeastern Virginia, and he continued to make his pitch that he is the best champion for the middle class. NPR's Scott Horsley reports.

Yes, Virginia, you are this election year's Santa Claus.

And it could be your bag of 13 presidential electoral votes that will be the key to deciding who occupies the White House in January.

Proof of Virginia's gathering importance?

President Obama is in the midst of a two-day Virginia campaign swing. Republican candidate Mitt Romney dispatched former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to counterattack Friday.

The airwaves are awash in campaign ads, and there's a veritable who-has-more-campaign-offices arms race well under way.

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This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Melissa Block. It's Friday and we'll begin the hour with the week in politics. The presidential campaigns are trading barbs over Republican Mitt Romney's role at his private equity firm Bain Capital, specifically when did he stop managing the company. SEC filings appear to contradict Romney's claim that he ended his active management role in 1999 when he left to run the Salt Lake City Olympics.