WASHINGTON – The presidential race is entering the sultry summer, a final lull before the sprint to Election Day, with President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney neck and neck and no sign that either can break away.

As both candidates take a breather this week – Romney at his lakeside compound in New Hampshire and Obama at the Camp David presidential retreat – each sees problems he’d like to cure before Labor Day.

Obama and his allied groups aren’t keeping pace with Romney and the Republican fundraising machine, and that places more pressure on the president to solicit huge sums himself. And the Supreme Court ruling that saved Obama’s signature health care initiative last week didn’t change the fact that most Americans don’t like the law.