President Barack Obama raised eyebrows when he told his supporters at a Springfield, Ohio, campaign rally yesterday not to boo at the mention of former Gov. Mitt Romney’s name, but instead “vote…voting is the best revenge.”
Byron York of The Examiner writes that “It was an ugly and small-minded moment, especially for the end of a campaign when candidates usually try to stress larger, optimistic themes.”
Today, Obama campaign spokesperson Jen Psaki tried to give context for the president’s remark according to NBC News :
“The message he was sending, is if you don’t like the policies, if you don’t like the plan that Gov. Romney is putting forward, if you think that’s a bad deal for the middle class, then you can go to the voting booth and cast your ballot. It’s nothing more complicated than that.”
Mitt Romney , the GOP challenger, responded to Obama’s remarks by saying that instead of voting for revenge, “vote for love of country.”
At the Legal Insurrection blog , Prof. William Jacobson wonders why voters would be taking revenge against the former Massachusetts governor and businessman in the first place:
“Did Romney run up $5 trillion in national debt and annual trillion dollar deficits for years to come? Did Romney stifle job growth with massive regulatory schemes covering the health care and financial sectors of the economy? Did Romney throw away billions of dollars on a failed Stimulus which was a payoff to state public sector unions? Did Romney throw away more billions on loans to political supporters for pie-in-the-sky ‘green energy’ companies? Did Romney send clear messages that we were distancing ourselves from Israel? Did Romney leave our Middle East policy in a shambles, with al-Qaeda flags being flown over our burning embassies?”
Last night, Romney held a massive rally in West Chester Township, Ohio, with an estimated 30,000 in attendance, which according to the Cincinnati Enquire r, was the largest assemblage of the campaign.
Do you think “revenge” is a good reason to vote for a candidate?
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