Democrats, Romney Campaign React to Biden Speech

Thursday, May 17, 2012

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Mitt Romney decided to make his business experience his “major justification” for seeking the presidency, but as the American people become more aware of his record that experience won’t be viewed as a positive, said former Gov. Ted Strickland.

Romney’s role at Bain Capital, the venture capital firm the presumptive Republican presidential nominee operated as its CEO, is the focus of increasing attacks by President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign and its allies, and was a key focus (CLICK TO READ STORY) of Vice President Joe Biden’s remarks Wednesday at M7 Technologies.

“He obviously was very successful at becoming a very rich man but he did that at the expense of a lot of ordinary people who suffered as a result of what he and his partners did,” Strickland said following Biden’s remarks. Strickland is a national co-chairman of Obama’s reelection campaign.

Biden, who addressed a crowd of more than 650 people at M7 (CLICK TO READ SPEECH EXCERPTS), brings a “deep understanding” of blue-collar workers and the middle class “who have for a very long time been faced with a very challenging set of economic circumstances,” Strickland said.

“He did a good job today of laying out the stark differences between the policies that Mr. Romney would choose to pursue versus the initiatives that the president and he are trying to pursue in terms of economic development and increased opportunity,” the former Ohio governor said. “Mitt Romney is a person who represents the 1%.”

Strickland said Romney “desperately tries to relate to ordinary people” but lacks the capacity. “He does not understand people how have to worry about putting gas in the car or food on the table or [paying for] health care for their families. Those aren’t challenges he has ever had to face and consequently I think he is really incapable of showing empathy to ordinary people.”

He added, “Who would ever say that they enjoyed firing people? Who would ever in a casual way offer to make a $10,000 bet?”

A Romney spokesman who attended Wednesday’s rally, Ryan Williams, defended Romney’s track record and criticized Obama and Biden. He dismissed Strickland as a “career politician” who Obama sent to “trash” Romney to avoid talking about his own record.

“This is just more of the negative, nasty campaign we’re seeing from Vice President Biden and President Obama,” he said. “They’ve had 31/2 years in office. They were obviously given a mandate when they were elected in 2008 to improve the economy and to create jobs and they disappointed millions of Americans. They’ve spent billions of taxpayer dollars on policies that have not turned around the economy.” While the economy is recovering from a “terrible recession” which the president inherited, “the recovery is slower and longer and inadequate compared to previous recoveries” because of Obama’s policies, the spokesman said.

Romney and his campaign are proud of the former Massachusetts’s governor’s record in both the public and private sectors, Williams continued.. “He created more jobs in the private sector and in office than this president has created for the entire nation during his 3 ½ years in office,” he said. On the subject of how Bain Capital made its money, a frequent target of Democrats and the Obama campaign in recent days, the campaign spokesman said, Romney understands there are successes and failures in private enterprise but is someone who has spent his life in the “real economy” and has worked hand in hand with business leaders.

“This president and this vice president have spent their life in government. They have turned to government to deal with this economic crisis and promoted liberal policies that have not done anything to reverse the tide and voters are disappointed, voters are disheartened by the inaction, by the failure of this president to do what he promised to do when he was elected in 2008.”

The Romney spokesman asserted that Romney is pleased that General Motors and Chrysler survived and are recovering after going through a “structured bankruptcy process” that Romney had advocated from the beginning and not a “handout or bailout.”

Both auto companies, however, received federal loans to assist them through the process because capital markets were frozen.

Before Biden took the state at M7, the Romney campaign and the Ohio Republican Party issued statements criticizing the Obama administration for spending on the federal stimulus. The campaign targeted Biden’s oversight role while the state GOP took aim at a recent ad that focused on Jonson Controls, which makes automotive batteries and received $229 million in in stimulus funds.

Mark Messenger of Leavittsburg said he is glad to see Democrats respond to “the crap that the Republicans have been saying.” Democrats “have been letting them lie a lot,” he complained.

Additionally, the GM Lordstown retiree said it “kills” him to hear Republicans’ complaints about the loans made to GM and Chrysler. “They didn’t have [any] problem giving money to the banks and it wasn’t a loan. They gave it to them like a gift,” he remarked.

Mayor Charles Sammarone was pleased to hear the vice president discuss the recent economic gains Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley have made in terms of manufacturing employment. “That means what we’re doing, we’re moving in the right direction and we’re doing what’s right,” he said.

Trumbull County Commissioner Dan Polivka also was pleased with the focus on area manufacturing gains and found Biden’s address “very impressive.”

Dan Yemma, who works in operations at M7, said he agreed “100%” with Biden, who he felt delivered a “very positive message.” He was particularly struck by Biden’s remarks regarding insourcing of jobs.

Lindsay Daprile of Youngstown reported she and her family got to meet Biden following the event.

“It was a surreal experience,” she said. “He picked up my niece, gave her a hug and a kiss, which is really exciting. It’s a really great message he sent to the Valley today and now we continue on home until November.”