Home 2019 Elections Cutter, Axelrod: RNC All “Snarky Rhetoric,” “Gauzy Reminiscences,” No Practical Solutions”

Cutter, Axelrod: RNC All “Snarky Rhetoric,” “Gauzy Reminiscences,” No Practical Solutions”

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I just got off a conference call with Obama for America Senior Advisor David Axelrod and Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter on the state of the race. Here are my quick notes on what they had to say (bolding added by me for emphasis).

*All we got from Mitt Romney last night was personal attacks on the president and lofty platitudes, no real ideas to move our country forward.

*The Republican convention was all about snarky rhetoric and gauzy reminiscences about the past.

*President Obama, in contrast, looks forward with confidence in the country and the American worker.

*Note that Romney never mentioned that he was governor of Massachusetts, that’s very telling right there. His whole case is, “I’m a businessman, I’ve got the secret sauce, trust me” to fix the economy. Yet that’s NOT what happened in Massachusetts. That’s part of the Romney history that he clearly doesn’t want to refer to.

*There’s a good reason why they provided no details, as it would be political suicide for them to talk about their plans to voucherize Medicare, give huge tax cuts to the wealthy that will be paid for by the middle class, etc.

*Romney’s promise to create 12 million jobs was not exactly bold leadership, as it’s the baseline already forecast by independent economists.

*Note that Romney didn’t mention veterans, our troops, or Afghanistan?

*The Democratic Convention will bring the choice in this election into clear focus, lay out a plan for moving forward, strengthening the middle class and the economy.

*Unlike Romney, President Obama won’t need to reintroduce or reinvent himself.  

*The Democratic convention will not waste its time rebutting the lies of the Republicans. The American people are smarter than Republicans think they are, won’t buy the false attacks around Medicare, “you didn’t built that,” etc.

*We’re all fighting for the same thing – economic policies that will favor broad prosperity and promote the middle class, not a return to disastrous trickle-down policies of the past decade.

*If Republicans want to debate Medicare, we’re happy to have that debate. Republicans have no basis of trust on Medicare; they’ve historically have been hostile to it, and the Romney/Ryan plan would lead to a slow death spiral for the program. Ask AARP what they think.

*Regarding the auto industry, President Obama made a courageous decision to fight to save it, when many people were saying he shouldn’t expend political capital on that and Romney was urging that we let Detroit go bankrupt. You WILL hear about this contrast at the convention, as well as what it means for states like Michigan and Ohio, where 1 in 8 jobs are auto-related.

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