Politics
Election 2012: Obama launches re-election campaign
After a spirited campaign for the Republican nomination, Mr. Obama said, the Republican leadership picked someone “who has promised to rubber stamp” their agenda if he gets a chance. He said the Republican agenda includes more tax cuts for rich Americans, spending reductions for education and health care, and enhancing the power that big bands and insurers hold over consumers.
Mr. Romney is a “patriotic American who has raised a wonderful family,” and has been a successful businessman and governor, the president said. “But I think he has drawn the wrong lessons from that experience. He sincerely believes that if CEOs and investors like him make money the rest of us will automatically do well as well.”
In addition to depicting Mr. Romney as a threat to the middle class, Mr. Obama also tried to blunt the impact of what is likely to be the Republicans’ best campaign issue.
“The economy is still facing headwinds and it will take sustained persistent efforts, yours and mine, for America to fully recover,” the president said. He noted that jobs are being created and urged his audience not to give in to what he predicted would be negative campaign commercials designed to “exploit frustrations.”
“Over and over again they’ll tell you that America is down and out and they’ll tell you who to blame and ask if you’re better off than the worst crisis in our lifetime,” he said. “The real question … is not just about how we’re doing today but how we’ll be doing tomorrow.”
Scarcely more than a dozen states figure to be seriously contested in the fall, including the two where Mr. Obama was campaigning Saturday.
They include much of the nation’s industrial belt, from Wisconsin to Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, as well as Nevada, Colorado and, the president’s campaign insists, Arizona; the latter three all have large Hispanic populations. Both campaigns also are focusing on Iowa, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia and New Hampshire. Together, those states account for 157 electoral votes.
