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Obama intensifies attacks on outsourcing
President Obama has intensified his attacks on outsourcing of American jobs to low-wage countries like India and China, targeting his Republican rival Mitt Romney’s record on this score as CEO of a private equity firm and then as Governor of Massachusetts.
Disregarding Romney’s emphatic denials and demands for an apology, the Obama campaign released a new attack advertisement over the weekend, which says: “As governor, Romney outsourced jobs to India”. And as CEO of Bain Capital, it says, he shipped US jobs to China and Mexico.
Romney has been accused of vetoing a measure that would have prevented contractors doing business with the State of Massachusetts from sending American jobs overseas.
The Obama ad released in a host of crucial battleground States, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida and Virginia, also attacks Romney’s personal finances and offshore investments.
Romney has been arguing that he left Bain Capital in February 1999 to take over the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, but Democrats say that documents suggest he was still in charge as late as 2001.
His supporters have also been pointing out that FactCheck.org, a nonpartisan group, found “no evidence to support the claim that Romney – while he was still running Bain Capital—shipped American jobs overseas.”
But President Obama ruled out any apologies as demanded by Romney. On the other hand, Obama spoke of Romney having attested to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) several times that he was the chairman, CEO and president of Bain Capital. As Obama said in an interview to ABC News, “Ultimately Mr. Romney is going to have to answer those questions because if he aspires to be president, one of the things you learn is you’re ultimately responsible for the conduct of your operations.”
Romney, however, was quick to hit back at Obama on Monday, saying it would be better if the president spent some time speaking about his own record, asserting: “I had no role whatsoever in the management of Bain Capital after February of 1999. I was an owner, and being a shareholder doesn’t mean you’re running the business.”
In an interview to Fox News, Romney commented that “a campaign spent on false charges and dishonesty doesn’t have long legs”, questioning: “What does it say about a president whose record is so poor that all he can do in this campaign is attack me.”
“The president has only one thing going and that is constant attacks on me,” Romney said, adding: “They’re dishonest, they’re misdirected and I think the American people recognize that kind of politics is something of the past. It may work in Chicago, but it’s not going to work across America.”
President Obama has intensified his attacks on outsourcing of American jobs to low-wage countries like India and China, targeting his Republican rival Mitt Romney’s record on this score as CEO of a private equity firm and then as Governor of Massachusetts.
Disregarding Romney’s emphatic denials and demands for an apology, the Obama campaign released a new attack advertisement over the weekend, which says: “As governor, Romney outsourced jobs to India”. And as CEO of Bain Capital, it says, he shipped US jobs to China and Mexico.
Romney has been accused of vetoing a measure that would have prevented contractors doing business with the State of Massachusetts from sending American jobs overseas.
The Obama ad released in a host of crucial battleground States, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida and Virginia, also attacks Romney’s personal finances and offshore investments.
Romney has been arguing that he left Bain Capital in February 1999 to take over the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, but Democrats say that documents suggest he was still in charge as late as 2001.
His supporters have also been pointing out that FactCheck.org, a nonpartisan group, found “no evidence to support the claim that Romney – while he was still running Bain Capital—shipped American jobs overseas.”
But President Obama ruled out any apologies as demanded by Romney. On the other hand, Obama spoke of Romney having attested to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) several times that he was the chairman, CEO and president of Bain Capital. As Obama said in an interview to ABC News, “Ultimately Mr. Romney is going to have to answer those questions because if he aspires to be president, one of the things you learn is you’re ultimately responsible for the conduct of your operations.”
Romney, however, was quick to hit back at Obama on Monday, saying it would be better if the president spent some time speaking about his own record, asserting: “I had no role whatsoever in the management of Bain Capital after February of 1999. I was an owner, and being a shareholder doesn’t mean you’re running the business.”
In an interview to Fox News, Romney commented that “a campaign spent on false charges and dishonesty doesn’t have long legs”, questioning: “What does it say about a president whose record is so poor that all he can do in this campaign is attack me.”
“The president has only one thing going and that is constant attacks on me,” Romney said, adding: “They’re dishonest, they’re misdirected and I think the American people recognize that kind of politics is something of the past. It may work in Chicago, but it’s not going to work across America.”
