Obama, Romney Trade Barbs Over Pennsylvania Vote
Mitt Romney hadn’t even begun licking up the “They Love Me, They Really Love Me”-themed Carvel Whale cake icing smeared all over his face before the Obama for America-Pennsylvania email blast went out last night. The theme of the blast (and many others like it): Mitt Romney sucks and the Pennsylvania primary proved it.
“Despite having an essentially uncontested primary, Mitt Romney spent significant time and energy in Pennsylvania trying, without success, to shore up his Republican support. In the end, over 40 percent of Republican voters still did not support him,” wrote State Director Bill Hyers.
Romney swept last night’s primaries by large margins—as he was expected to do, having now spent $126,000 per delegate. In Pennsylvania, he won 58 percent of the vote, compared to 18 for Rick Santorum and low double digits for both Gingrich and Ron Paul. He also took New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware, the latter of which Gingrich campaigned heavily in, for some reason. Therefore, you could either say last night was a great one for Romney or terrible. After all, he’s been considered the Republican presidential nominee since Rick Santorum dropped out of the race two weeks ago. Yet, his opponents are still picking up a large share of votes. A fact he ignored during his victory celebration.
Romney’s speech theme was “A Better America Begins Tonight”—and Fox Nation unsurprisingly called his admittedly vague prepared words a “killer.” He gave said killer speech in New Hampshire, probably because it’s considered a swing state (and one in which he is well behind Obama in the polls). He told the crowd a bunch of stuff about his vision of an “America driven by freedom, where free people, pursuing happiness in their own unique ways, create free enterprises that employ more and more Americans.”
And, “Today, the hill before us is a little steep but we have always been a nation of big steppers. Many Americans have given up on this President but they haven’t ever thought about giving up. Not on themselves. Not on each other. And not on America.”
And, so on.
The email the Obama camp sent out accuses Romney of committing every act of commonwealth treason under the sun, short of pissing on William Penn’s grave.
“Outside of Pittsburgh, Governor Romney drew national media attention as he continued his tour of alienation, offending Pittsburgh area residents and the nearly 1 million Pennsylvania small businesses when he mocked the products from a beloved local bakery,” it reads, referring to an incident last week in which Romney allegedly threw away some cookies.
They also hit him on his opposition of the Buffet Rule, the accusation that he’d raise taxes on the middle class and on education. Specifically: “Mitt Romney was overheard telling a group of high-dollar donors that he would gut funding for the Department of Education.”
The Republican National Committee countered with a message noting none of that matters, because polls! They in fact cite a recent Muhlenberg poll, which said 51 percent of Pennsylvanians do not think the president deserves re-election.
“That message, combined with Obama’s obvious weaknesses among the electorate, make Pennsylvania look more like a red state with each passing day,” writes RNC political director Rick Wiley. “Soon, Chicago will again be asking Vice President Biden to renounce his long Delaware residency and rediscover those Scranton roots we heard so much about in 2008.”




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