US President Barack Obama addressing a press conference/FILE
Maryland, June 13 – A sarcastic US President Barack Obama Tuesday said his rival Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign theme could fit on a tweet with letters to spare — “it’s Obama’s fault.”
Obama told supporters in Maryland that his policies at a time of economic misery had been able to “right the ship a little bit” but that he needed a second term to “lock in” progress and growth.
“The good news is, the American people generally agree with our vision,” Obama said.
“If you just put in front of them, issue after issue, and you present the Democratic approach and the Republican approach, we win.
“The challenge is because folks are still hurting right now, the other side feels that its enough for them to just sit back and say, ‘things aren’t as good as they should be and it’s Obama’s fault.”
“And, you can pretty much put their campaign on … a tweet and have some characters to spare.”
Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Republican House Speaker John Boehner, quickly hit back at Obama’s remark …. on Twitter.
“Methinks the President’s silly attack on GOP message shows frustration that he doesn’t have a consistent message at all,” Buck wrote.
Obama was Tuesday holding six events in Maryland and Philadelphia as he cranks up the pace of his fundraising after being well outpaced by Romney, who raised $76 million in May compared to his own haul of $60 million-plus.
Aides said Obama intended on Tuesday to draw sharp distinctions between his approach and that of Romney, who he believes would weight the economy towards the richest Americans and hurt the middle classes.
“You’ll never see a sharper contrast,” between rival protagonists in an election, he argued, claiming Romney would run the United States deeper into debt and cut spending on science, education and infrastructure.