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Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign rally at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday.
Updated 3:02 p.m. ET: COLUMBUS, Ohio — President Obama dropped the gloves against Mitt Romney on Saturday, leveling his most direct criticism to date of the presumptive GOP nominee while making the case for a second term.
On a two-stop trip that took him to two swing states — Ohio and Virginia — intended to launch his campaign, Obama assailed Romney and sought to link him to unpopular Republicans in Congress.
"Governor Romney is a patriotic American who has a wonderful family, who has much to be proud of. Ran a financial firm and a state. But I think he has drawn the wrong lessons from his experiences,” Obama said to a crowd of 14,000 at Ohio State University’s Schottenstein Center.
“He sincerely believes that if CEOs and wealthy investors like him make money, the rest of us will automatically make money as well,” he continued, reading off the same script at Virginia Commonwealth University in the early evening, as the crowd of 8,000 cheered.
The president started to draw contrasts against Romney heading into the general election by dredging up some of the former Massachusetts governor's most cringe-worthy moments in the primary.
"Corporations aren’t people. People are people!" Obama exclaimed, making reference to an early quip by Romney in Iowa that, "Corporations are people, my friend!"
Prosecuting the case for his own re-election, the president emphasized the gains his administration has made so far on a host of policy ares, including the revival of the auto industry, repealing "Don’t Ask Don’t Tell," ending the war in Iraq and killing Osama bin Laden.
In this week's address, President Obama speaks about his recent trip to Afghanistan, where he met with U.S. troops and signed an agreement that will help put an end to the war.
Obama nodded to the challenges facing him in his battle for a second term; an anemic jobs report released Friday underscored some of Obama's challenges.
But the president defied a traditional metric for an incumbent — "Are you better off today than you were four years ago?" — and turned the question on its head.
"It’s not just about how we’re doing today, but how we’ll be doing tomorrow," Obama said.
The Romney campaign was quick to remind voters of the struggles in the economy.
"No matter how many lofty campaign speeches President Obama gives, the fact remains that American families are struggling on his watch: to pay their bills, find a job and keep their homes," said Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul. "While President Obama all but ignored his record over three and a half years in office, the American people won’t. This November, they will hold him accountable for his broken promises and ineffective leadership.”
Melissa Harris-Perry and her panelists discuss President Obama's new campaign slogan of "forward," and how Republicans are reacting to his message.
Both the Romney and Obama campaigns are treating Ohio and Virginia as swing states that could tip in their favor.
Some polls indicate Romney is catching up to Obama in the Buckeye State; a Quinnipiac poll released May 3 show Obama leading Romney by two points, 44 to 42 percent, whereas he had a six-point margin at the end of March.
Obama’s trip to Ohio State came just a day after Romney penned an open letter to the president in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer Friday, accusing him of being “out of your depth” on the economy and telling him, “what you are offering Ohio now is too little, too late.”
Romney also appeared in Ohio last week, appearing with Gov. John Kasich at an event at Otterbein University in Columbus, just 20 minutes from where Obama spoke today.
Romney also bracketed the president’s trip to Virginia, where Obama has a 51-44 percent lead according to a new Washington Post poll. Romney campaigned earlier in the week with Virginia’s Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell, thought to be on the short list of Romney’s vice presidential options.
The chairman of the state Republican Party’s “Victory 2012” campaign also delivered a response to the president’s VCU speech directly after Obama spoke.
It’s not just coincidence that Obama kicked off his campaign in Columbus and Richmond; according to the media trackers at SMG Delta, the cities are just two of 17 swing media markets that George W. Bush won in 2004 and Obama won in 2008.
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Meanwhile, Ron Paul is still racking up delegates.....
msnbc needs a bigger "barak for president" sticker.
Sure Keck, cause Fixed Noise is not a 24/7 mouthpiece for the GOP.
The difference is that NBC has a liberal slant, Fake News are a pack of outright liars and if you don't like it hear go to their site. They'll tell you everything you want to hear. Roger Ailes would never lie to you.
ohh, talking about mouthpieces again ozzie ?
...kinky...whatever floats your barge Oz
Is this what passes for a witty retort in your dark, twisted, simple minded world???
Gee Ozzie.
Didn't NBC/MSNBC alter the Zimmerman 911 tapes??
But I guess that's OK being that it is Liberal Ethics.
ROMNEY 2012= for my grandchildren who will be born into the bondage of crushing debt. I want them to be free, not be a cradle to grave 'Julia'
Romney will add more debt since the GOP will never increase taxes on the wealthy (that Grover Norquist Pledge keeps them all in line) and they will never get busy with job creation because they will be much too busy drumming up another war with Iran. Seems there is a lot of money to be made in war mongering. So many conservatives have been salivating for war with Iran. Then there will be the end of Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid as well as all the other programs for the middle class. There will be more privatization of jobs that have been done by deserving and decent people public workers. There will be a much less rosy hopeful agenda with the GOP of today in our government. Most of them are millionaires, some very wealthy millionaires and they really will do what corporations want just the same as they did with Bush and Cheney. So more harm to the environment, more harm to the planet and more damage for your grandchildren to deal with.
Perhaps you should read an earlier post, which may help bring things into clarity.
"Presidents can propose anything they choose to, including spending
requests. The fact remains, however, that all appropriation bills (spending)
and tax bills must originate in the House of Representatives (Article 1,
Section 7, US Constitution) and receive a majority vote and then must be
approved by the Senate with a majority vote (50) - although a fillibsuter needs
60 votes to proceed to a vote."
Also let us not for get President Bush enter his term with a Surplus and left with a huge Deficit. Two tax cuts and two wars unpaid for - but that is probably not what you remember.
Presidents can't spend money Congress has not appropriated
It's all Bush's fault!
...dont forget 9/11 was totally off the books.
who paid for 9/11 ? ...unfunded disaster from bush
Could have been prevented by Clinton.
Your correct Lore Congress controls the Purse strings not the President.
Who has been in control of Congress for the last 8 years since 2006?
Here's a hint;
The Dems had control of the House and Senate from 2006 through 2010.
From 2006 to 2008 Bush was a lame duck President because the Dems controlled the House and Senate.
The Dems had a filibuster proof Majority from Jan 2009 to Jan 2010.
The Dems also had the White House from 2009 to Present which means they had control of all three for Two Years and had a filibuster proof majority for one of those two years. Health care reform and the Frank -Dodd bill were passed without a single Republican vote.
For the last four years, the Democrats have failed to pass a budget which they are required to do by law, and only the Republican controlled House has passed budgets since they took office, and they get vilified for obeying the law.
Lets not forget who has had all the power and controlled the purse strings for the last 8 years when someone starts talking about unfunded wars, deficits, tax cuts,etc..
Republicans get 1/3 blame and the Democrats share is 2/3'rds blame.
Seriously, the surplus myth again? I think Mythbusters needs to do an episode on this topic just to shut you people up. Sure, we can take the money from Social Security again and stop paying those people that depend on it to pay off the debt with a promise that we'll repay the S.S. fund, since that is not "debt" per se' since the government owes itself, but the SS fund is not currently large enough to pay off the other debt (mostly to China), plus if the politicians actually tried to pull that stunt now, they'd be lynched.
Your sarcasm is usually so much more superior than this. This is so beneath your abilities.
Joe America is out of work with his home foreclosed on, living in a cramped
apartment on food stamps while his just graduated from college son is working
at a fast food restaurant part time and lucky to have that.
But I understand that Warren Buffett and Mr Obama's other Wall Sreet donors are doing quite nice.
Dont forget unions.
Ging
- Get rid of the Tea-Bag Congress and things will start getting better.
Obama/Biden - 2012
Maybe the 750,000 jobs A MONTH we were losing when Bush left office had something to do with it.
But of course Obama should have fixed that detail in a couple of years.
i live in an area that is mostly college students. all the ones i know have jobs coming out. there are only 15 states that are at or above the national unemployment rate and they happen to mainly republican. when businesses collapse like the dot com bust the top people tend to leave wealthy its the workers the 9 to 5ers that end up suffering. its not governments fault that wall street collapsed the economy. its not governments fault that companies use whatever tax loopholes they can and drive up the deficits. that all being said, most of america is doing way better than when bush left office. the republican horror story of america is just that, a story.
Your right GM and UAW doing much better they are not paying taxes.
those 750 thousand a month jobs...were companys running from obama rules and reg they all new were coming...the last 6 months of bush and first 6 months of obama...are all on obama!!!
gm got billions of our money for cash for clunkers...tax payers money...to union boss for obama campain...see the circle?
Yes they are and President Obama and Warren Buffett are the only ones who have any intention of helping Americans with job creation and with help when they are down and out. President Obama is the only one along with Democrats who will insist that taxes be fair and that the wealthy pay their fair share. The fact is that the wealthy have had all the breaks from our government. Cheney let corporations come in and tell him what they wanted done in our Energy Program. The Bush years were corrupt years with corruption and greed run amuck. Nothing Romney will do will be different since he is right there supporting the same terrible Bush policies that harmed this country so horribly.
Romney has all the same Bush corporations that want republicans in charge so that they get their way at deregulation, anti-environment laws, and more and more damage to our air, earth and water. Corporate America is doing fine and we sure do not need to give them more control over our government with the GOP agenda against the middle class and the working poor.
Mitt Romney got jelly spine... I think Mitt would start a war just to feel like he's a real man like Obama, you know, the one with the steal spine
You are finally right......steel spin. No spine about him
You mean Like Libya?
First Obama said no because it wasn't popular and the Pressure from the Left, code pink etc, was no.
Then the U.N. passed a joint resolution and all of U.S.'s allies and even the African Union and Arab League were on board. Then Obama changed his tune because he had "Political cover" and it was all about protecting civilian lives, humanitarian, etc. and Obama would have looked like a chump if all our allies did it and the U.s. didn't especially after all the things we got them into such as Iraq, Afghanistan,etc.
He did it without congressional approval violating the War Powers act and still he never got Congressional approval.
If Obama has a spine its only because it was loaned to him, George Sorros allowed him to have one, or he got it from someone else.
By the way. Its been three years since Obama was "Given", not "earned" the Nobel Peace Prize.
Has he done one thing, anything, to even suggest he should even be "considered" for an NPP award much less actually doing something to "Earn" it?
Watch this and be afraid
Look up "Hitler Forward video" on You Tube. MSDNC will not alllow the URL to be published.
Strikingly similar to Obama
Jamb it, dumb ass
Be stupid and let the GOP make you afraid of the word FORWARD with all their bottom feeder propaganda for fools and idiots. Grow up and think for yourselves if you possibly can. This is nitwitty nonsense.
The sad part is how stupid party voters are. What idiot screams about the deficit and then backs the ryan pan which adds 6 trillion to the national debt? Only a moron.
I bet not one teabagger poster on this forum knows that the nation is back to the pre bush depression level of jobs in the private sector. This is a fact. Off all the jobs from bush to Obama 4 mill were private sector. The rest were govt jobs. FACT Obama has gotten those 4 mill jobs back.
If you are out here complaining about why we are still short about 5.5 mill jobs ask the good old boy govs who have been slashing public jobs and postal jobs.
all of you guys why don't you just vote the way your mind tells you to vote and let the dominos fall where they may. you know half of you show so much hate that you are actually pushing a lot of voters right into obama's court because you are not stating facts but just spewing out straight up hate and that will turn a lot of voters off. so just shut the hell up and vote.
ohh....who are you voting for pburg ?
....do tell.
I did not really see many facts from pburg, but I did notice hate. I think he may be pushing votes away from Obama because he is not stating facts..
obama could get with red lobster.....and get them to accept food stamps
....that will get him some votes right there.
I just phuckin hate republicans....they do serve a purpose...
we need those phaggot hypocrites as police and prosecutors to take the badest of us off the streets...
but the rest are worthless pieces of sh1t.
?
Do all Obama supporters express themselves like you .... ??
I think Obama's making you a bit angry .... "LOL"
Debt still climbing makes them angry.
Keck - Do you mean the same food stamps the 1%ers are getting?
ha...man i make too much money to get food stamps legally...
...but i am trying.
how bout you ?...you gettin any of them "obama bucks" ?
Yeh, I'm heading to the casino with my welfare check i one hand and my food stamps in the other...Just not sure whether to drive my Caddy or my Lexus...
wow, you are driving your caddy ?
....you must tip very well
You are sick.
It is time the America's realizes that only the Democrats represent the people; Republicans represent themselves and their backers. Every Republican has an agenda that has been dictated to him/ her by the wealthy few -- don't believe it? Well how much has the Republican gov'ts of Ohio and Virginia and even the Republican House of Reps done to respond to overwhelming poll numbers demanding Wall St Reform, an end to Oil Co subsidies and a tax on the wealthy???? Republicans are puppets on strings - only Democrats truly represent America and Americans. And notice the wealthy who support Obama are the wealthy who made it themselves and not this "new Nobility" who is trying to take over the country.
yea tax them more...so they just raise there price and charge you more...freaken idiots ..i swear...lol
Ran a financial firm and a state. But I think he has drawn the wrong lessons from his experiences,” Obama said to a crowd of 14,000 at Ohio State University’s Schottenstein Center.//The gloves are off ! What lessons is he talking about ? Conservative lessons perhaps ?
Yea, conservative lessons. Like how to take a budget surplus and in just a few short years, piss it all away by starting 2 UNFUNDED WARS and UNFUNDED TAX CUTS. You don't even need an MBA to figure out that is not going to put you on solid finacial footing. But hey, I know it makes you feel better so blame the whold damn thing on Obama.
Ozzie
Does DOT COM BUBBLE and 9/11 sound familiar?? Than is where the surplus went.
I can't read 14 pages to check if this has been said, but Obama DID NOT eliminate Bin Laden...our hard-working, risk-taking, patriotic military did.
Yes, and Obama was informed a couple of days later! What a moron!
Taking out bin Laden happened because President Obama took office and said that his objective would be to hunt down bin Laden. He put men on it and that is what was done. Men trained for the mission because President Obama wanted them to be ready and confident. Only because he gave a go on the mission did this happen. Our Navy Seals did the work excellently but it came to be because President Obama was determined that America would get this terrorist. He wanted the mission to go down this way and they were able to get so much information that they have been going through. It was a great success for all involved.
Vicki, the military and CIA have been working on the BL problem the whole time. How naive you are to think Obama did anything here but take credit. I I I i
I am well informed and this would never had happened if not for President Obama wanting it to happen. It was one of his campaign promises and one he could accomplish without the opposition of the GOP. The military followed the orders of the Commander in Chief. This was a success for President Obama who thanked every single man who went on this mission. This was a success for America because this evil man killed thousands of Americans and we got him. This would have been blamed on President Obama with every right wing attack if the mission failed. President Obama has proven he can lead our military to a very successful mission. I am proud of the President and all the Navy Seals who went on the mission. President Obama stood up and gave the go and you right wing simpletons can't stand it.
“He sincerely believes that if CEOs and wealthy investors like him make money, the rest of us will automatically make money as well,” he continued??Marxism is not any better ehh !
Block Clooney's fundraising.
Yea, you do that. Good luck pal. I didn't know fundraising was illegal. And if you want to know where the dirty money money is, go check out Karl Rove and his cronies who are seeking to buy this election.
Very good point Mark. You are exactly right. It's all about hate. We will see how far that hate will take us in this election
It's hard to love Obama's massive debt and deficit .... "LOL"
It's hard to love Obama's massive debt and deficit .
Big - Then get those 1%ers off the govt "Teet" and make them start paying some taxes......
GT
I think you need to get a education. The 1%ers pay 36.73% of the Income Taxes.
http://ntu.org/tax-basics/who-pays-income-taxes.html
We tax INCOME we don't tax wealth.
Slodon - You need the education. That 36% is before their deductions!!!
Do you trust Mitt Romney to protect you no matter what people may say,
Will Mitt Romney stand up for you
Do you trust Mitt Romney with your life
Obama promotes abortions ....
Is that life .... ??
do you trust your to a guy that eats dog ?
BEN is so concerned about the sancity of life and the rights of the "unborn" his resolution this year is to adopt a whole passle of Black and Latino babies.
Good work buddy, we're real proud of you.
WOW! Big Ben's gonna adopt some "Darkies". What a Right wing thing to do. You can even put them to work as janitors in your schools....
Obama/Biden - 2012
wow you guys are kinda racist tonight huh ?
...what ?!...did the klan cancel tonight ?
I think Mitt would start a war just to feel like he's a real man
Indie-
No, he'd start a war because he's @!$%#ing inept!
Obama/Biden
, accusing him of being "out of your depth" on the economy and telling him, "what you are offering Ohio now is too little, too late." //Kind of makes you think what the hell are you doing about it ! Obama three years and still no plans for Ohio ? . TOOOO LATE is it ? Ohio you are toast ! Ohio is on their own now. Try rubbing two sticks together it might work better start a fire under your out of depth economy.
Instead of trying to help fix the economy, the Republicans have spent the last 3.5 years trying to make Obama fail. They screwed the country to push their political agenda, which is, All for us and FU.
What a freakin dipsh*t .... how can anyone that has made so many mistakes in his term as Pres have the sack to want to take off the gloves!! What, I repeat, what .... has this guy done that has your life better, my life better and the lives of middle class America better?? This is guy is so oblivious!!
I can't read all 14 pages so far to find out if this has been said, but Obama DID NOT eliminate Bin Laden. Our hard-working, risk-taking, patriotic, military did...and that is where the credit lies.
...obama is going to come out with a "i got bin laden video" featuring hamid karzai in the background as a "hype man"
33MO, if it makes Obama feel good taking credit for giving the military permission for the raid on Bin Laden, I will let him do it.
I agree, if I were a navy seal or CIA person on that mission , I would be appalled that he wants the credit.
33MO And would you have said that if Dubya had gotten the job done? Of course not.
Besides which, who gets the glory when a battle is won? The leader of course. You know, Eisenhower, Patton, MaCarthur, etc.
FRED: Were you half as "appalled" when that dumb ass of a buffoon Dubya was hot dogging it, landing on the carrier in his cute little flight suit and strutting around? Admit it you weasel, had Republicans been involved in this you'd all be parading around the the streets.
Seriously? Even Republicans didn't admit to supporting "Dubya" during his terms. If this had happened during one of his terms, full credit would've went to the people on the mission, not Bush, regardless of the party affiliation of whom was giving credit. Bush was a dunce, but he was a humble dunce, not like the rest of the "slick" D.C. politicians/liars (Republican and Democrat alike).
Since Obama took office in just over 3 years we have had 39 continuous months with an unemployment rate above 8%, and for 28 of those months unemployment was at or above 9%. His policies have managed to give us more months above an unemployment rate of 8% and more months above an unemployment rate of 9% than the totals for the entire 61 years from Jan 1948 to when he was sworn into office in 2009. In addition, the labor participation rate is now at its’ lowest level since the middle of the deep double-dip recession in 1981, over 30 years ago, because so many people have stopped looking for a job.
Hey pete, when you can shift your companies over to china and Mexico so you can pay slave labor that might have something to do with the labor participation rate you think? And don't say unions is the cause of that.
Man you sure put out alot of pretty numbers that don't mean nothing with out all the facts. Anybody can throgh numbers out but why are these numbers the way they are? Why is unemployment so high? Could it be because of the global reccession? Come on man put all the info out there.
We Americans don't understand economics. We want cheap things manufactured with expensive labor. Doesn't work in any Universe regardless of whether the Universe is controlled by conservative or liberal values. Numbers are numbers and are absolute. 100 will always be 100 regardless of how much you want a $10 item to be made by a $100 laborer. Sorry, numbers just suck because they tend to be absolute no matter how much you want them to be different.
Being an Obama supporter is all about making excuses.
Don't waste your time, Pete. You have to argue emotionally with liberals, not facts.
pburg
So when we were losing those 750,000 jobs per month under Bush it was because of the World Recession?
Mr Romney has not only met a state budget as Governor(with an adverserial Democrat legislature)...
but he turned the Salt Lake City Olympics around(which was heading to disaster until he took over).