Romney mocks Obama's reform record

SARASOTA

Mitt Romney seized upon President Barack Obama's admission Thursday that he "can't change Washington from the inside" to brand him a failure, as the White House bout heats up.

With polls showing the incumbent enjoying a slim lead over his rival ahead of the November 6 vote, Romney leaned in with an aggressive thrust during a rowdy campaign stop in the battleground state of Florida.

"The president today threw in the white flag of surrender again. He said he can't change Washington from the inside, he can only change it from outside," Romney told supporters.

"Well we're going to give him that chance in November. He's going outside!" Romney said, to a roar from the 4,000-strong crowd packed into a museum's grassy courtyard under a blazing Florida sun.

The former Massachusetts governor had pounced on comments made earlier in the day by Obama, who was also in the Sunshine State for an appearance on Spanish-language network Univision.

"I think that I've learned some lessons over the last four years. And the most important lesson I've learned is that you can't change Washington from the inside. You can only change it from the outside," Obama said.

"That's how I got elected, and that's how the big accomplishments, like health care, got done ... because we mobilized the American people to speak out."

Romney's retort came amid a difficult and potentially pivotal week for the Republican challenger.

Battered by relentless criticism over remarks disparaging around half of the American population that emerged in a secret video, the Republican nominee is struggling to get his campaign back on track.

Another setback came early Thursday, when Romney's campaign co-chairman Tim Pawlenty, himself a 2012 White House hopeful before dropping out early, stepped down in order to head up a banking lobby.

The former Minnesota governor has been a fixture on Romney's campaign trail, and was seen as a likely contender to be Romney's running mate.

Budget hawk congressman Paul Ryan got the nod instead, and Pawlenty now heads to Washington to become a banking lobbyist.

Despite aides insisting the race is a dead heat, particularly in around nine battleground states that will ultimately decide the election, Obama has a consistent if narrow lead in most polls.

Romney's rally was near the "I-4 corridor" that crosses the heart of the Florida and is seen as one of the most vital areas of the country to secure key independent or undecided voters.

Standing before a large banner that read "Protect and Strengthen Medicare," Romney pledged to thousands of seniors in attendance that he would do away with Obama's landmark health care reform law.

A day earlier in Miami, on the same "Meet the Candidates" program addressed by Obama, Romney had muddled his message by quipping that he didn't mind when the president called him "the grandfather of Obamacare."

"I don't think he meant that as a compliment, but I'll take it," Romney said.