President Barack Obama's team ripped into Republican Mitt Romney's big convention speech on Friday, complaining it lacked a governing vision and disguised plans to punish the middle class. As dust settled from the Republican National Convention in Florida, the president's team switched their focus to their own nominating jamboree next week, at which Obama must persuade voters he deserves to keep his job.
Senior Obama advisor David Axelrod promised the president would provide the specifics that he said Romney's address on Thursday, which was packed with personal anecdotes and patriotic platitudes, lacked. "I think that what people were tuning in hoping to hear were practical solutions to the challenges that we face," Axelrod told MSNBC. "You know, what they got were some snarky lines about the president, some gauzy reminiscences about the past and some buzzwords for the base."
Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said that while the convention may have succeeded in warming people up personally to the Republican nominee, practical solutions were lacking. "It was more about tearing down Barack Obama than leaving the American people with the impression of what Mitt Romney's presidency would be," she told CNN, ahead of the Democratic convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Obama's campaign also released a web video, assailing Romney for what it said were his plans to add tax burdens to the middle class, further enrich the wealthy with tax cuts and gut state-financed health care for seniors. "When you learn about the Romney plan ... is it any wonder he doesn't have much to say?" the narrator said, over pictures of a sad looking Romney.
Romney's speech included an appeal to Americans enthralled by Obama's historic election win in 2008 who now felt that his soaring rhetoric was not matched by proficiency in government or successful economic policies. "Hope and change had a powerful appeal. But tonight I'd ask a simple question: If you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack Obama, shouldn't you feel that way now that he's President Obama?" Romney asked.
Obama, was for appearances sake at least, keeping out of the partisan fray on Friday, heading to Texas to mark the second anniversary of his order to halt combat in Iraq with war veterans and their families. While the trip was in keeping with his duties as commander-in-chief, the visit has a highly political context for Obama who regards getting troops home from Iraq as a core 2008 campaign promise honoured.
On Saturday, Obama will throw himself back onto the campaign trail in earnest, launching a four-day "Road to Charlotte" tour, blitzing battleground states Iowa, Colorado, Ohio and Virginia. The president's aides also got in a dig at Clint Eastwood's bizarre and rambling prime time performance at the Republican convention in Tampa - in which he addressed an empty chair meant to represent Obama. "This seat's taken," the campaign tweeted, with a picture taken behind Obama in his chair in the cabinet room, which bore a gold plate reading "The President."
Comments
Comments are closed.