President Barack Obama sharpened his criticism of Republicans in a series of campaign fund-raisers Sunday on the West Coast, saying the GOP would “cripple” America and beginning to engage his 2012 challengers.

Mr. Obama took aim at Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry at a California fund-raiser, without naming the Texas governor, and he criticized the behavior of the audience during the party’s recent debates.

“I mean, has anybody been watching the debates lately? You’ve got a governor whose state is on fire denying climate change,” Mr. Obama said in a reference to Mr. Perry that drew applause from the 350 donors at a fund-raiser in Woodside, Calif.

“You’ve got audiences cheering at the prospect of somebody dying because they don’t have health care and booing a service member in Iraq because they’re gay,” Mr. Obama said. “That’s not reflective of who we are.”

Perry spokesman Mark Miner called it “outrageous” that the president “would use the burning of 1,500 homes

A new web video and harsh criticism emerged from the Mitt Romney camp today as President Barack Obama launched his three-day bus tour that will make stops in Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois.

Dubbing the president’s trip the “Magical Misery bus tour,” Romney said in a statement that “it is unlikely President Obama will speak with unemployed Americans, to near-bankrupt business owners, or to families struggling to survive in this economy.”

“He is more interested in campaigning in swing states than working to solve the economic crisis that is crushing the middle class,” said Romney. “Turning this economy around will require real leadership and the experience of someone who has actually worked in the private sector.”

And in the web video titled “Obama Isn’t Working: Minnesota,” the campaign interviews several Minnesotans ahead of the president’s visit today.

President Barack Obama’s upcoming bus tour through the Midwest states typically viewed as swing states during presidential election years will be paid for by the taxpayers, the White House says.

Obama will start the tour on Aug. 15 and will talk about strengthening jobs and the economy, the White House announced on Tuesday.

“He is very happily getting out into the country again after a very sustained period here in Washington and he looks forward to talking to folks about growing the economy, creating jobs," said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. "We will have more details, as I said, about the specifics of the trip."

Cheering crowds in the steamy tropical heat are expected Tuesday when President Barack Obama makes a rare presidential visit to Puerto Rico.

But the nearly 4 million U.S. citizens who live on the island and can’t vote in the general election aren’t really the point.

A legion of 1,600 newly-recruited Democratic campaign volunteers, armed with Tweet-producing smartphones and a contagious spirit of enthusiasm, are fanning out across 40 states today to begin laying the groundwork for the reelection of President Barack Obama.

The forces -- college students, recent graduates, teachers, and retirees -- will work unpaid through August, aides say, to grow and re-energize Obama's grassroots volunteer network that had remarkable success in 2008, and gather troves of voter data in the process.

Obama campaign managers hope the effort will give the president something of a head start over his yet-to-be-determined Republican rival, in what is expected to be a tough campaign.

He said: "we have driven the issues of national security, the border fence, the emergence of China and the need to reverse bad trade policy. Because of that, this campaign has been very worthwhile."

Ridiculous theory ignores weak dollar, rise in energy prices. A sustained corporate media propaganda campaign has been initiated in order to bolster attempts by the Bush administration to further ease restrictions on how foreign laborers can be brought in