Obama went through his administration's efforts to boost the struggling economy but allowed that "right now, the economy is still rough enough for enough people that this is going to be a close election. He said "continued headwinds" were likely, including the financial uncertainty in Europe.
"I don't think that ultimately that the Europeans will let the euro unravel, but they're going to have to take some decisive steps," Obama said. "And I've been spending an enormous amount of time trying to work with them."
Obama said big-spending super PACs "are engaging in an experiment that we have not seen in American democracy for quite some time. They are spending like nobody's business and focusing on negative ads." He said Democrats don't have to match that spending dollar-for-dollar, "but we do have to make sure that we can get our message out effectively."
While the president was raising millions in New York, Republican rival Mitt Romney trolled for cash overseas, working a fund-raiser into his schedule in Israel. Both sides are in a pell-mell race for campaign dollar as polls show the candidates running about even. June was the second consecutive month in which Romney brought in more money than Obama.
Vice President Biden, in an e-mail to supporters, wrote Monday: "This isn't hyperbole or exaggeration: If we don't win this election, it will be because we didn't close the spending gap when we could."
In a separate e-mail, Obama campaign chief operating office Ann Marie Habershaw wrote that, "to be frank, we've gotten our behinds handed to us the past two FEC deadlines by Mitt Romney and his crew."
