Harsh words from GOP presidential hopefuls for Obama speech

Many of the Republican presidential hopefuls rallied around a common cause Monday evening: Taking swings at President Obama and his nationally televised address in an effort to woo the GOP faithful.

Their near-universal assessment: The president’s speech fell flat.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty accused Obama of “lecturing the country instead of leading it.”

“An historic failure of leadership,” former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney told his more than 61,000 followers onTwitter.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who has been campaigning heavily in Iowa ahead of that state’s upcoming straw poll, said she drew inspiration from residents there and two other early-voting states in the presidential sweepstakes.

“Not one person in Iowa, New Hampshire or South Carolina has told me that we need a ‘balanced approach,’ which, of course, is code for higher taxes and spending,” she said in a statement. “Let me be clear: I will not vote to raise the debt limit.”

Herman Cain, the former pizza chain executive, took to Twitter for a preemptive strike before the presidential address even began. “Instead of speeches, why won’t he try leadership?” he wrote.

In his speech, Obama chastised Republicans, conservative first-term members of Congress in particular, for their rejection of compromise. Americans, he said pointedly, are tired of a political system in which compromise is a “dirty word.”

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum tried to turn those words against Obama. He chimed in that what “people are fed up with is a president who uses class warfare as a crutch to divide rather than focusing on solving the issues affecting each and every American”

Pawlenty seemed to speak for the entire GOP field when he said the speech was “another reason why President Obama needs to be removed from office.”

shane.goldmacher@latimes.com