"There may be
value for that kind of experience, but it's not in the White House," Obama
said.
Obama spoke to a
cheering Iowa crowd of about 2,500 at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, represented a
new intensity for Obama's campaign as Romney begins to hit his stride carrying
the Republican standard. It came as Iowa, soured by the direction of the nation
and its economy, has drifted away from Obama since his 2008 caucus victory over
Hillary Rodham Clinton made him the Democratic front-runner.
While Obama
carried the state in the general election by a comfortable margin that year,
polls this year have shown voters narrowly preferring Romney, who plans to wage
his own major effort in Iowa.
Reacting to Romney's
charge last week that Obama had created "a prairie fire of debt," the
president countered that Romney's tax plan is "like trying to put out a
prairie fire with some gasoline." In a statement issued after the speech,
Romney spokesman Ryan Williams said: "A president who broke his promise to
cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term has no standing when it
comes to fiscal responsibility
Romney, a former
Massachusetts governor, has made the struggling economy the centerpiece of his
campaign. But Obama can point to comparatively low 5.1 percent unemployment in
Iowa, where stable financial services and strong agriculture sectors buoyed the
economy while manufacturing has struggled to rebound.
Romney had made
the comment about corporations as he argued against raising taxes as a way of
shoring up Social Security and Medicare. Members of the audience interrupted,
calling for increased taxes on corporations, and Romney responded:
"Corporations are people, my friend. ... Everything corporations earn
ultimately goes to people."
Oh really Romney,
do the earning of corporation trickle down to people, did you say that, and do
you really believe that. If earnings from corporations ultimately goes to the
people, where are the jobs, where is the affordable healthcare insurance for
employees, and the list goes on.
Obama's campaign
has emphasized episodes in which Romney's former firm closed plants and laid
off workers, and has aired a stinging TV ad on the subject in Iowa, Colorado,
Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
President Obama approval ratings here has been stuck below 50 percent for over two
years, softened in part by criticism from Republicans campaigning for Iowa's
leadoff caucuses.
