On Thursday, President Obama and Mitt Romney delivered remarks on the economy in the crucial swing state of Ohio. The speeches were significant since they occurred on the same day and were based on the same topic. A mini-debate of economic policies in some respects.
First, Mitt Romney delivered his remarks from Cincinnati at 1:30pm ET:
Followed by President Obama speaking from Cleveland at 1:45pm ET:
Report from the LA Times:
CINCINNATI — President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney dueled Thursday from opposite ends of a state vital to their November chances, framing the election as a choice between failure and economic progress — and differing sharply on who was to blame for years of disappointing job growth.
The two had been scheduled to speak simultaneously, but Romney pushed up his speech at a Cincinnati manufacturing plant to get a jump on Obama. He said the president had had 31/2 years to spur recovery after the economy tanked in 2008 and had little to show and not much to offer beyond high-flown rhetoric.
“Talk is cheap,” said the former Massachusetts governor, speaking before a banner that read “Putting jobs first,” a recent mantra of his campaign. Then, seizing on Obama’s own slogan — “Forward” — Romney cited the huge run-up in the federal debt and asked, “You want four more years of that? You call that forward? That’s forward over a cliff. That’s forward on the way to Greece.”
Obama, addressing rowdy supporters at a community college outside Cleveland, yoked Romney to President George W. Bushand Republicans in Congress, saying they were pursuing an economic agenda — deregulation, tax cuts for the rich — that caused nearly a decade of job losses from which the country is still recovering.
There must be a reason President Obama continues to run against President Bush. The focus groups, polling, something must indicate they think this is a winning strategy. For his part, Romney appears to be settling into a strong message and finding some traction on the economy.
