Economy Forces Obama to Ditch Mr. Nice Guy in 2012

"Women's pay equity isn't something that someone who wants to be president should need to 'think' about, not when working women across America who on average earn just 77 cents to every dollar that men earn for the same job," the Obama campaign wrote in a statement.

Central to this week's political rhetoric concerning women voters is the economy -- an issue that most strategists, economists and academics believe will decide the election.

"I think in November there's been a significant improvement in peoples' outlook on the economy ... and a very aggressive Republican primary that I think has all better positioned the president," said Billy Vassiliadis, a Nevada-based Democratic strategist who served as an operative for Obama's 2008 campaign. "They're not going to just let Karl Rove spend a bunch of money attacking the president without responding back."

Karl Rove runs the super PAC American Crossroads -- which had silently raised $26.9 million through February. Rove started on Friday to launch radio attacks against Obama in Ohio and Pennsylvania -- two swing states -- about the president's "efforts to effectively destroy the coal industry."

Obama-backing super PAC, Priorities USA Action, has raised just $6.5 million through February and has reportedly continued to struggle.

If Obama's campaign achieves another election of unmatched campaign fundraising, the onus would rest on his own team to counter attacks from super PACs like American Crossroads and Romney-supporting Restore Our Future with their own negative attacks against the Republican opponent.

A group that could dish out the dirty work is big labor, which Rove has said could raise as much as $500 million to support the president.

Wherever the money comes from, though, it appears that the incumbent president will have to, through his own facilities or a wealthy outside group, win this election by taking the focus off four years of economic results and guiding a negative narrative of Romney.

The Buffett Rule and women are issues that Obama has criticized Romney on already. And that's just in the first week of the race for the White House.

-- Written by Joe Deaux in New York.

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