Obama Dials Back Optimism After Romney Criticism

President Barack Obama sought to
contain political damage by clarifying optimistic comments about
the state of the U.S. private sector, saying it is “absolutely
clear that the economy is not doing fine.”

His remarks came after Mitt Romney and other Republicans
seized on comments the president made at a White House news
conference that they said showed Obama doesn’t understand the
state of the U.S. economy.

“The truth of the matter is that, as I said, we’ve created
4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months, over 800,000 just this
year alone,” Obama said at a White House news conference. “The
private sector is doing fine.”

Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee,
told Iowa voters that Obama is “defining what it means to be
detached and out of touch with the American people.” House
Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia said at a news
conference, “My question would be to the president, ’Are you
kidding?”’

The Republican National Committee rushed out a Web ad that
featured a video clip of Obama saying “the private sector’s
doing fine” followed by text posing the question, “How can
President Obama fix our economy if he doesn’t understand what’s
broken?”

The campaign conflict caps a week of economic and political
developments that have placed the administration on the
defensive. These include the rise of the nation’s unemployment
rate to 8.2 percent in May and the failure of Democrats and
organized labor in a recall campaign against Republican Governor
Scott Walker in Wisconsin, a state Obama’s campaign is counting
on for his re-election.

Recalling 2008

The back-and-forth recalled a key moment in the 2008
campaign. The Republican nominee, Arizona Senator John McCain
said “the fundamentals of our economy are strong” on Sept. 15
following the bankruptcy filing of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
amid the financial crisis. At the time, Obama’s campaign derided
McCain as “out of touch.”

“I’m sure Democratic speechwriters, their stomachs were
turning,” independent political analyst Stu Rothenberg said.

Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic strategist who served as a
deputy campaign manager for Democrat John Kerry’s 2004
presidential campaign, said while Republicans would try

You can read the rest of this article at:: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-06-08/obama-dials-back-optimism-after-romney-jumps-on-comments

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Posted by RobertButler on Jun 8 2012. Filed under 2012 Presidential Campaign. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry