Mitt Romney, the clear favourite to win the Republican presidential nomination, has released the first television ad of his 2012 campaign. Even though his immediate battle is against fellow Republicans – in the latest CNN poll, he trails Newt Gingrich by four points – here Romney’s attack is aimed squarely at Obama.
The Obama campaign has pushed back, particularly against the clip of Obama saying ‘If we keep talking about the economy,
we’re going to lose’, calling it ‘deceitful and dishonest’. You see, when Obama said that, in 2008, he was quoting John McCain’s campaign and criticising them for it. Here’s a fuller extract of
Obama using that line:
And this isn’t the first Republican ad to take Obama’s words out of context. Rick Perry’s effort from last week begins with a clip of the President saying ‘We’ve been a little bit lazy I think over the last couple of decades’. Perry incredulously responds ‘Can you believe that? That’s what our President thinks is wrong with America, that Americans are lazy?’‘Deep down, John McCain knows his economic theories don’t work. That’s why his campaign said if we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose. That’s why I keep on talking about the economy.’
Again, Obama’s full comments give a very different impression:
Romney and Perry clearly think being labelled deceitful is a price worth paying to get these hits in against the President. There is risk in allowing Obama such an easy counterpunch, but right now the candidates aren’t fighting him – they’re fighting each other.‘We’ve been a little bit lazy over the last couple of decades. We’ve kind of taken for granted — “Well, people would want to come here” — and we aren’t out there hungry, selling America and trying to attract new businesses into America.’
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