Obama to GOP: 'Stop Drawing Lines in the Sand'

President Obama accused Republicans of keeping a politically motivated stranglehold on the US economy as his three-day bus tour of the Midwest wrapped up today, the Los Angeles Times reports. "I need you to send a message to folks in Washington," he told voters at a seed-production facility in Atkinson, Ill. "Stop drawing lines in the sand, stop engaging in rhetoric instead of getting things done. It’s time to put country ahead of party."

But Obama revealed nothing of his pending jobs plan and said Washington alone could not revive the economy, the AP reports. Republicans dismissed Obama's bus tour as a brazen attempt to secure votes for 2012. "This is an outrage," said Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, who accused Obama of running "around in his Canadian bus" and acting "as if he is interested in creating jobs in our country." (The New York Post reports that the $1.1 million bus was indeed made in Canada.)