Campaigns Respond to Romney's Strong Debate
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Republicans lauded and looked to capitalize today on what is widely seen as a strong performance by Mitt Romney in Wednesday night’s debate with President Obama that focused on the economy.
Romney “did a commanding job of spelling out his plans for getting America back on track,” said Gov. John Kasich in a statement emailed following the Denver debate. “He was presidential, he was compassionate and he stood in stark contrast to the president, who didn’t really try to defend his record and instead only lobbed criticism.”
Kasich added that he thought the former Massachusetts governor “was especially strong in his call to create jobs by reducing taxes on small businesses and to streamline our fragmented workforce training programs by giving more authority to the states,” ideas that Ohio is embracing and “our progress is showing America that the ideas Gov. Romney champions are the right ones to get Americans working again.”
The president will return Friday to Ohio, considered one of the key battlegrounds and where he has enjoyed an advantage in recent polls, to speak at Cleveland State University. Locally, the Obama camp will seek to shift the post-debate discussion to more favorable terrain with an event at Youngstown’s Fire Station No. 1. The event will highlight the president’s support for first responders and Romney’s “110% backing” of Senate Bill 5, the failed attempt by Kasich and Ohio Republicans to curb public employee collective bargaining rights that Ohio voters overwhelming overturned last fall.
Ohio GOP Chairman Bob Bennett, also in a statement issued following the debate, praised Mitt Romney's clarity and command in tonight's debate performance, saying that he “hit a home run … by painting a clear picture of what voters can expect from his policies.” Obama, on the other hand, “left a lot to be desired and peddled the same broken promises he made four years ago and I think people will see right through them this time,” he charged.
"John Kasich and our Republican officeholders are leading a turnaround in Ohio, but President Obama's reckless regulatory policies are continuing to take a toll,” he said. “High taxes, more spending and endless red tape are not what Ohio needs from the White House.
In a brief fundraising email, Bennett’s Democratic counterpart said he “couldn’t be prouder” to call Obama his president.
“Tonight, we heard two very different approaches for our country's future,” said Chris Redfern, Ohio Democratic Party chairman. “President Obama offered specific, concrete plans to restore middle class security for folks all across Ohio, while Mitt Romney resorted to more lies and ‘zingers’ because he knows his history as an outsourcing pioneer is not going to work here in the Buckeye State.”
After the debate, the president’s reelection campaign issued a series of statements regarding Romney’s statements and assertions, challenging the former governor on multiple fronts. The Obama campaign pointed out that Ronney’s health-care reform plan in Massachusetts served as a model for Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which Romney has vowed to repeal if elected; rejected the claim that Obama “walked away” from the recommendations of the Simpson-Bowles commission on deficit reduction and pointed out that Romney’s running mate, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, voted against its recommendations; and warned that Romney would repeal financial reform regulation put in place following the 2008 financial crisis and allow Wall street to right its own rules once again. The campaign also challenged Romney’s claims of bipartisanship in Massachusetts, his plans for education and his economic assumptions.
“Throughout this election, voters have been offered the clearest choice they’ve seen in a generation -- and tonight, the contrast could not have possibly been any greater,” remarked U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democratic National Committee chairwoman. “President Obama laid out his vision for continuing to move America forward with an economy that grows from the middle out, not the top down. We didn’t see the same specifics from Mitt Romney, and there’s one simple reason for that: if the American people knew the details on how Romney would accomplish his plans and policies, they’d go running in the other direction.
“At no point tonight did Mitt Romney say how the math adds up on his $5 trillion tax cut favoring the wealthiest few and paid for on the backs of the middle class,” she continued. “He wants to repeal Obamacare but refused to provide a single idea to protect hardworking families from the worst abuses of big insurance companies, and his promise to do away with Wall Street reform was not accompanied by even one new rule he’d put in place to keep America’s consumers protected. Tonight, Mitt Romney made a full-fledged commitment to double down on the same failed policies that crashed the economy and brought the middle class to its knees—and that’s the very last thing the American people can afford.”
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.