The Obama campaign is spending Thursday focused on Mitt Romney's record as the governor of Massachusetts, drawing parallels between the promises he made then and those he is making now.
David Axelrod, a senior adviser to the Obama campaign, will hold a press conference at the Massachusetts Capitol Building in Boston, symbolic of Romney’s Beacon Hill days. Massachusetts, the Obama campaign says, ranked 47th in job creation while Romney was governor.
“Mitt Romney claims his experience as a corporate buyout specialist will bring positive economic results for the nation," the Obama campaign said in a release. "He made the same economic promises when he ran for governor of Massachusetts that he makes today -- more jobs, less debt and smaller government. Once in office, he broke all those promises and more. Now we are seeing the same promises out of Mitt Romney on the presidential campaign trail and America can’t afford the same results.”
Coinciding with this new focus, the campaign released an online video that shows Romney running for governor in 2002 and on the campaign trail today. The video asks what can be expected from a Romney presidency. Then, one after the other, Massachusetts politicians outline what they said happened during his governorship, hitting him on taxes and job creation.
“He sold to the people of Massachusetts when he was running for governor the same lines he's trying to sell to the United States and it just didn't happen that way,” Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, Romney's successor, said Thursday on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. He did say, however, that he was pleased with the health care legislation that Romney signed into law.
The Romney campaign, in response, pointed to the 4.7 percent unemployment rate in Massachusetts under Romney, which hovered around the national average at that time.
“The Obama campaign has gone from ‘Hope and Change’ to ‘Hope To Change The Subject,’” Romney campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said in an email to National Journal. “Only President Obama, who has failed to meet his own goal of 6% unemployment, would have the audacity to attack Mitt Romney's record of creating jobs. We're happy to compare the 4.7% unemployment rate Mitt Romney achieved in Massachusetts to President Obama’s weak record any day.”
Later Thursday morning, the Romney campaign announced it too would hold a press conference at the Massachusetts Capitol Building, just 90 minutes before Axelrod is due to speak.
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