Thread: Obama tells Americans not to take chance on Romney

Obama tells Americans not to take chance on Romney
AFPBy Stephen Collinson | AFP – Sat, 5 May, 2012



US President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign event in Richmond, Virginia. Obama said Saturday the United States had climbed too far out of an economic abyss to take a chance on Republican Mitt Romney, firing up his reelection bid at his debut rallies. (AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski)


US First Lady Michelle Obama speaks during a campaign event in Columbus, Ohio.
Obama as a man who rose from his own family's struggles, striking an implicit contrast with the wealthy upbringing and current wealth of Mitt Romney. (AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski)
President Barack Obama said Saturday the United States had climbed too far out of an economic abyss to take a chance on Republican Mitt Romney, firing up his reelection bid at his debut rallies.

"We are not turning back the clock, we are moving forward," Obama said, seeking to revive the political magic that swept him to power in 2008, and unleashing his most strident attack so far on the man who wants his job.

The president, in loud, enthusiastic rallies in swing states Ohio and Virginia, made the case that though times were still tough, he had hauled the economy back from the brink, and there was once again reason to hope.

He said Romney, a multi-millionaire former venture capitalist, wanted to reward himself and rich friends with tax reductions and "rubber stamp" slashing spending cuts on education, clean energy and health care for the elderly.

"Ohio, I tell you what, we cannot give him that chance ... this is not just another election, this is a make or break moment for the middle class," Obama said.

"We have been through too much to turn back now," he said, striking the central theme of his drive for a second White House term, six months before the November 6 vote.

"That's the choice in this election and that is why I am running for a second term as president of the United States," Obama said, drawing chants of "four more years" from a crowd of 14,000 people in Ohio and 8,000 in Virginia.

Obama also ripped Romney for his remark that "corporations are people," saying "people are people" and claiming that Romney would tilt the economy too far in favor of the wealthy and repeat crisis-inducing policies.

Romney argues that, although Obama did not cause the recession, he has prolonged it and is out of ideas to get Americans -- hobbled by eight percent unemployment -- back to work.

Obama said he had taken office in 2009 amid the deepest economic crisis since the 1930s, in an implicit recognition that times remain tough for many people for whom a recovery remains a mirage.

"We didn't quit. We don't quit, together we are fighting our way back."

"We are making progress and now we face a choice."

In his most forensic examination of Romney's record yet, Obama praised the former Massachusetts governor and millionaire venture capitalist as a patriot and a good family man, who had done well in business.

"But I think he has drawn the wrong lessons from those experiences. He sincerely believes (when) CEOs and wealthy investors like him make money the rest of us will automatically prosper as well."

In a statement, Romney's spokesperson Andrea Saul dismissed what she called Obama's "lofty campaign speeches."

"The fact remains that American families are struggling on his watch: to pay their bills, find a job and keep their homes," she said.

US voters in November "will hold (Obama) accountable for his broken promises and ineffective leadership."

Earlier, popular First Lady Michelle Obama reached out to blue collar workers still feeling the lash of the recession, stressing her own humble beginnings, and her family's struggle to send her and her brother to college.

She painted Obama as a man who rose from his own family's struggles, striking an implicit contrast with the financial comfort cushioning Romney.

"He is the son of a single mother .... he is the grandson of a woman who woke up before dawn every day to catch a bus to her job at the bank.

"Barack knows what it means when a family struggles. That is what you need to know America is those are the experiences that have made him the man he is today."

"We all know what Barack Obama is. And who he is."

Romney, who must almost certainly win Ohio to have a shot at capturing the White House, welcomed Obama to the bellwether state with a simple message: "Where are the jobs?"

"I recognize, of course, as do all Americans, that you inherited an economic crisis," Romney wrote in an opinion article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper on Friday.

"But you've now had three years to turn things around. The record of those three years is clear. Your policies have failed, not only in Ohio, but across the nation."

An average of national opinion polls by the RealClearPolitics website shows Obama with a narrow three-point lead over Romney -- 47 to 44 percent.

The president's approval rating generally sits in the high 40s, just below the 50 percent threshold that presidents need to feel confident about reelection.

Obama tells Americans not to take chance on Romney - Yahoo! News Canada

Yeah! Right this stadium holds 20,000 and they estimate there was maybe 3000 people here!

The choice is clear, socialism or capitalism, public schools have spent the last 40 years preparing America for socialism now we wil see if they did there job, the less educated/lazy will always pick socialism.

(Getty Images / BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI)

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Saturday was supposed to be President Barack Obama’s day, dominated by headlines of successful campaign holding its first rally. Instead, reports prominently included references to thousands of empty seats at the president’s first rally here — just as the Romney campaign wanted it.

How Mitt Romney’s Campaign Put A Damper On Obama’s Big Day

Got this in an eMail over the weekend....

Subject: Mitt Romney you probably haven't known
>
> This article can be verified at www.snopes.com. It is completely true.
>
> Unlike most urban legends, this one is 100% true. It is detailed on
> Snopes
> snopes.com: Romney Business Partner Daughter Search.
>
>
> Whether you like Romney or not, this story is very revealing. I hope
> the Republican Party is still the party of family values and
> character.
>
> Sometimes, this facet of Romney's personality isn't so subtle. In July
> 1996, the 14-year-old daughter of Robert Gay, a partner at Bain
> Capital, had disappeared. She had attended a rave party in New York
> City and gotten high on ecstasy. Three days later, her distraught
> father had no idea where she was and Romney took immediate action. He
> closed down the entire firm and asked all 30 partners and employees to
> fly to New York to help find Gay's daughter. Romney set up a command
> center at the LaGuardia Marriott and hired a private detective firm to
> assist with the search. He established a toll-free number for tips,
> coordinating the effort with the NYPD, and went through his Rolodex
> and called everyone
> Bain did business with in New York , and asked them
> to help find his friend's missing daughter. Romney's accountants a t
> Price Waterhouse Cooper put up posters on street poles, while cashiers
> at a pharmacy owned by Bain put fliers in the bag of every shopper.
> Romney and the other Bain employees scoured every part of New York and
> talked with everyone they could, prostitutes, drug addicts, anyone.
>
> That day, their hunt made the evening news, which featured photos of
> the girl and the Bain employees searching for her. As a result, a
> teenage boy phoned in, asked if there was a reward, and then hung up
> abruptly. The NYPD traced the call to a home in New Jersey , where they
> found the girl in the basement, shivering and experiencing withdrawal
> symptoms from a massive ecstasy dose. Doctors later said the girl
> might not have survived another day. Romney's former partner credits
> Mitt Romney with saving his
> daughter's life, saying, "It was the most
> amazing thing, and I'll never forget this to the day I die."
>
> So, here's my epiphany: Mitt Rom ney simply can't help himself. He sees
> a problem, and his mind immediately sets to work solving it, sometimes
> consciously, and sometimes not-so-consciously. He doesn't do it for
> self-aggrandizement, or for personal gain. He does it because that's
> just how he's wired.
>
> Many people are unaware of the fact that when Romney was asked by his
> old employer, Bill Bain, to come back to Bain & Company as CEO to
> rescue the firm from bankruptcy, Romney left Bain Capital to work at
> Bain & Company for an annual salary of one dollar. When Romney went
> to the rescue of the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics, he accepted no salary
> for three years, and wouldn't use an expense account. He also accepted
> no salary as Governor of Massachusetts.
>
> Character counts! The media and
> Obama re-election machine will focus
> on Romney's wealth and the immorality of it, as they see it, but
> Romney is a man who uses his wealth to bless and to make th is world a
> better place. Let's get this message out because it is not likely
> that the media will do so!
>