Mitt Romney’s birthday gift to Obama: Attacks on the Chicago economy
President Obama can’t even head home to Chicago for some birthday fundraising events without getting hounded about the sagging economy by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
On Wednesday, Romney released another in a series of Internet videos trying to tie Obama’s political fortunes to the floundering economy. With images of empty storefronts and abandoned city streets, the ad notes that Chicago’s unemployment rate is up 48% since November 2008, when the president was elected.
As with past Romney ads, it concludes with Obama’s own words: “If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition.”
The president flies to Chicago on Wednesday for two fundraising events for the 2012 election, timed to coincide with his 50th birthday, which is on Thursday.
Romney, meanwhile, is ramping up what his campaign operatives told the Washington Post is a new phrase of his candidacy with a series of August town-hall events across New Hampshire and appearances in Iowa.
Romney, the leading Republican in most polls, has kept a lower public profile than many other GOP contenders in recent months and has tried to focus his campaign attacks on the Democratic president, rather than his fellow Republican challengers.
shane.goldmacher@latimes.com
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