US President Barack Obama

REUTERS

U.S. President Barack Obama, soaked to the skin as he rallied supporters during a downpour in the election battleground state of Virginia on Saturday, kept up his attack on Republican Mitt Romney as the rhetoric hardened on both sides.

Standing before about 900 people at the Walkerton Tavern & Garden who stood cheering and chanting despite the drenching rain, Obama attacked Romney's record as head of a private equity firm and contrasted his middle class childhood with Romney's wealth, reports Reuters.

"I don't want a pioneer in outsourcing. I want some insourcing. I want to bring companies back," Obama told the crowd in this town near Richmond, his soaked blue shirt sticking to his arms and rain dripping from his face, as supporters chanted "Four more years."

With polls showing a close race for the November 6 election, Obama has constantly painted Romney as a multi-millionaire private equity specialist who is out of touch with ordinary voters.

The president continued that on Saturday, reminiscing about humble vacations as a child when his family would travel on a Greyhound Bus and a highlight was being able to swim in the motel swimming pool or using the motel's vending machines.

The Obama campaign also released two new ads on Saturday, one of which played clips of Romney demanding the president apologize followed by clips of the Republican candidate attacking Obama. "Mitt Romney. He sure asks for a lot of apologies. When he's not busy launching attacks," the ad said.

In the other ad, the main sound is of Romney singing "America the Beautiful." Meanwhile, the ad scrolls through lush images of Bermuda and the Cayman Isles to draw attention to the Republican's offshore bank accounts while referencing the outsourcing of U.S. jobs.

The Romney campaign slammed Obama for the ads.

"Every day, President Obama hits a new low," said Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul. "It is sad and shameful that President Obama would mock America The Beautiful. But sadly it's not surprising for the man who launched his presidency with an apology tour."

Tensions between the campaigns have escalated sharply over Romney's tenure at Bain Capital, which the Democratic president has used to put his opponent on the defensive and switch the conversation from Obama's stewardship of the weak economy.

Romney on Friday demanded that Obama apologize for his campaign's attacks about his business record and questions over whether the Republican was still leading Bain when the private equity firm outsourced U.S. jobs abroad.

Obama has said since Romney touts his business background as one of the main reasons he should be elected president, then Romney should answer questions about when he left Bain Capital.

Obama also suggested that Romney was a deep pocketed candidate who was mainly attacking him on the economy but had not offered suggestions on how to fix it.