SIOUX CITY, Iowa – President Barack Obama began his "Road to Charlotte" tour Saturday in Iowa, the state that started it all back in 2008.

While this was the formal start of the push to highlight his upcoming speech Thursday at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., the president has been stumping in Iowa pretty regularly this year. Saturday’s visit marked his seventh trip to the Hawkeye state. While Iowa only has six electoral votes, the campaign is determined to prove that the president can once again win over a state that has been politically leaning red since Obama was elected.

In Urbandale, outside of the capital city of Des Moines, the president began to renew his case with his version of a "recap" of this past week's Republican National Convention in Tampa.

"Everything is bad, it’s Obama’s fault and Governor Romney is the only one who knows the secret to creating jobs and growing the economy," the president said sarcastically. "That was the pitch. There was a lot of talk about hard truths and bold choices, but nobody ever actually bothered to tell you what they were."

And then he pledged to give the answers he claimed the Republicans glossed over.

"This Thursday night, I will offer you what I believe is a better path forward, a path that grows this economy, creates more good jobs, strengthens the middle class. And the good news is you get to choose which path we take. We can take their path or we can take the path that I'm going to present."

His speeches in both Urbandale and Sioux City were energetic with new, pointed criticisms of GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.

Harkening back again to Romney's speech in Tampa, the president reminded the crowd that Romney didn’t mention the troops serving in Afghanistan.

"Governor Romney had nothing to say about Afghanistan last week, let alone offer a plan for the 33,000 troops who will have come home from the war by the end of this month. He said ending the war in Iraq was 'tragic.' I said we’d end that war -- and we did."

Larry Downing / Reuters

President Barack Obama speaks to thousands of supporters Saturday at a campaign event at the Living History Farms in Urbandale, Iowa.

The Obama campaign theme emblazoned on banners at events is "Forward," symbolizing the president's repeated criticisms that Romney's plans will take the country "backwards." But the president newly riffed on this Saturday when he said of the Republican convention, "What they offered over those three days was more often than not an agenda that was better suited for the last century. It was a rerun. We’d seen it before. You might as well have watched it on a black-and-white TV."

But missing from the pair of fiery speeches in Iowa were new ideas from the president. He presented the plans he's been pushing throughout the year. If he has new ideas, he's clearly saving them for Thursday.

Shawna Thomas / NBC News

A sign using the Sioux City, Iowa, airport code Saturday gives President Barack Obama a derogatory greeting on the side of a hangar.

His remarks Saturday were a reworked mash-up that allowed him to choose applause lines that have worked well since he officially took to the trail in May. 

But waiting for the president when he landed was a sign that he still has a ways to go to win over Iowa again, literally. Spread across a hangar at the airport where Air Force One landed was a handmade sign proclaiming "Obama welcome to SUX and We Did Build This" ("welcome to" was in small letters; to be fair, SUX is the airport code for Sioux City, but the sign was meant to be derogatory).

The president continues his tour through Colorado, Ohio, Virginia and Louisiana before heading to Charlotte to give one of the most important speeches of his political career.

Mary Altaffer / AP

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, left, vice presidential running mate Paul Ryan, and their wives, Ann Romney, second form left, and Janna Ryan, greet supporters Saturday in Jacksonville, Fla.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan went to military country Saturday and promised those serving our country that if elected, they would not cut the military budget.

"Now there’s only one place -- there’s only one place this president’s willing to cut, and not just a little.  He wants to cut a trillion dollars out of our military budget," Romney told the crowd to boos. "Look, that’s bad for jobs and it’s bad for our national security. The world is not a safer place right now, not with Iran trying to become nuclear, dangers throughout the world.  If I’m president and Paul Ryan’s vice president we will not cut our military budget."

While Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, continues to campaign against these pending defense cuts, he in fact voted last summer for the Budget Control Act of 2011, resolving the debt-ceiling debate, that included this defense sequester.

Romney and Ryan spoke here in Jacksonville, which has the third-largest naval presence in the country.

"I look around here and I see veterans, I see Air Force, I see Marines, I see Army over there, I see a lot of Navy," Ryan said before the roughly 5,000-person crowd. "Thank you for your service to our country. You make us proud."

The GOP ticket has been trying to reach out to different pockets of the electorate in the past week to try bridging the gap for Romney as he trails President Barack Obama in polls. The GOP nominee’s wife, Ann Romney, held events geared toward both women and Hispanics. Mitt Romney traveled to Indianapolis on Wednesday to address veterans at The American Legion.

The military vote, which according to exit polls went for Republican candidate John McCain 54 percent to 44 percent in 2008, could help Romney defeat Obama this fall.

Romney advisers concede the state of Florida -- which even hosted the Republican National Convention this year -- is all but essential for a Republican victory on Nov. 6.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is in our hands, it is in your hands. Florida, Floridians, you have a major say so, you have a big responsibility and a big opportunity," Ryan said, speaking at The Landing on a very hot day. "If Florida goes the right way, America goes the right way."

Brian Snyder / Reuters

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney greets audience members Saturday at a campaign rally in Cincinnati, Ohio.

CINCINNATI -- Mitt Romney marked the start of the fall campaign Saturday, which coincided with the season-opening weekend of college football, by comparing President Barack Obama to the coach of a faltering team whose losing record means he must be replaced.

"One of the promises that he made was that he was going to create more jobs and today 23 million people are out of work or stopped looking for work or under employed," Romney told a raucous rally crowd in Southern Ohio in the morning. "Let me tell you, if you have a coach that is zero and 23 million, you say it's time to get a new coach. It's time for America to see a winning season again and we're going to bring it to them."

Romney, who pulled out of a planned joint rally with his running mate Paul Ryan in Virginia in favor of a trip to survey hurricane damage in Louisiana on Friday, hit the stump with renewed vigor, cribbing from his Thursday night acceptance speech at the RNC convention and whipping up a crowd of supporters in an art deco train station cum museum, where the acoustics led to Romney's words often being drowned out by applause.

"United, America built the strongest economy in the history of the earth. United we put Neil Armstrong on the moon. United we face down unspeakable darkness. United our men and women in uniform continue to defend freedom today," Romney said. "This is a time for us to come together as a nation. We do not have to have the kind of divisiveness and bitterness and recriminations we've seen over the last four years. I will bring us together."

Supporters here said they were happy to hear Romney return to the themes of his convention speech, with even long-time Romney backers like Sheila Bender of Lebanon, Ohio, telling NBC News that the convention speech helped her learn more about the man she planned to vote for in November.

"The convention helped me to get to know him a little bit better, Bender said, adding "I learned a lot."

Democrats quickly hit back at Romney's speech, calling his campaign promises empty, with Obama campaign spokesperson Lis Smith labeling them "the same failed policies that crashed our economy and devastated the middle class in the first place and are promises the middle class just can’t afford."

Introducing Romney in a red golf shirt with the Cincinnati Reds logo on it, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman also used a sports metaphor, this time a baseball one, to praise the GOP ticket:

"So Cincinnati, what about those Red Legs," Portman asked. "Last night the team that has won the most games in baseball has won again, with a home run by Jay Bruce ... I see another world series title coming to Cincinnati folks! And here's what else I see: with a home run by Mitt Romney at the Republican convention, I see the Romney/Ryan team going all the way to the White House."