Politics
Election 2012: Obama seeks to undercut Romney’s record on jobs
The Romney campaign did not comment on the ad early Monday. The former Massachusetts governor was spending the day in Boston, with no public events scheduled, after delivering a commencement speech in Virginia on Saturday.
Romney has accused Obama of attacking free enterprise and called the criticism of his business background an attempt by Democrats to distract voters from the president’s record.
Both candidates were entering a new week in the campaign seeking to shift the focus back to voters’ No. 1 issue, the economy, from social issues that dominated after the president announced his support for gay marriage.
The two campaigns contend that in a nation where unemployment is hovering around 8 percent, voters will choose between Obama and Romney based on economic arguments. Obama is trying to convince voters to stick with him as he heralds an economic rebound, as sluggish as it is. Romney counters that Obama has had enough time, and only he, with his deep background in business, knows how to jumpstart the nation’s job market.
Obama, hosting his first campaign rally earlier this month in Columbus, Ohio, gave a preview of the new line of attack, saying Romney had “drawn the wrong lessons” from his business experience at the helm of Bain.
“He doesn’t seem to understand that maximizing profits by whatever means necessary, whether through layoffs or outsourcing or tax avoidance or union-busting, might not always be good for the average American or for the American economy,” Obama said then.
Romney, a multimillionaire, left Bain in 1999 to run the Salt Lake City Olympic Games but maintained a financial interest in the company after departing. He has said that his firm had a strong overall track record, creating jobs in prominent companies like Staples and Sports Authority, while acknowledging that some companies Bain invested in were unsuccessful.
