Critics say President Obama's bus tour this week is more about keeping his job than helping create American jobs.

The president said he's just trying to drum up support for a chopped-up version of his jobs bill. However, the prospects for that new version are not good.

Obama's three-day bus tour kicked into day two on Tuesday. His new $1 million bus is traveling through North Carolina and Virginia, which may prove to be two battleground states during the 2012 campaign.

With a crowd chanting, "Four more years," the president's stops have all the appearances of a re-election campaign -- giving speeches, shaking hands, and holding babies.

"I appreciate the four more years, but I'm thinking about the next 13 months," Obama told a crowd in North Carolina.

But many Republicans say the president is already thinking about the next four years.

"We want the president to work with us. We want him to stop campaigning," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said. 

"It is time the president came off the campaign trail, sat down and negotiated," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said. 

Many political analysts believe the economy is the most important issue on voter's minds. If that's the case, the president has cause for concern. A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll shows his approval rating is just 35 percent on the issue.

Plus, his half a trillion dollar jobs bill hit a major road block last week. So the president is now taking an incremental approach.

"What we're going to do is break up my jobs bill. Maybe they couldn't understand the whole thing at once. We're going to break it up into bite-sized pieces," Obama said.

Senate Democrats said the first piece is a $35 billion aid package to fund jobs for teachers, police, and firefighters.

"Our communities cannot afford to lose the men and women who keep us safe and secure," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters.

But the aid package is already in jeopardy, meaning the first priority on the president's job agenda could be headed for defeat.