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April 01, 2012

US election 2012: Mitt Romney is most out of touch candidate in modern times, Joe Biden says

Barack Obama's re-election campaign stepped up its attacks on Mitt Romney on Sunday, as Vice-President Joe Biden called him the most out of touch candidate of modern times.


Mitt Romney during the Waukesha County GOP Lincoln Day dinner in Pewaukee, Wisconsin

The vice-president, who has been deployed by Mr Obama as the champion of America's poor, accused Mr Romney of "stripping people of their dignity" by trying to slash public spending and scrap the president's overhaul of the US health care system. "None of what he's offering does anything," Mr Biden told CBS. "It's about dignity," he repeated.

"I can't remember a presidential candidate in the recent past who seemed not to understand, by what he says, what ordinary middle class people are thinking about and are concerned about," said Mr Biden.

Mr Biden also attacked Mr Romney for his aggressive response to the President's leaked comment to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev that he could be more "flexible" in negotiations on missile defence if he were re-elected.

"He acts like he thinks the Cold War's still on," Mr Biden said. He added that Mr Romney – who is frequently criticised for "flip-flopping" on key issues – had shown himself to be "a pretty flexible guy" himself.

His remarks came after an increasingly confident Mr Romney, who is expected to win Tuesday's primary elections in Wisconsin, Maryland and the District of Columbia, discarded his pitch to Republican primary voters for the past four months in favour of a new stump speech, which ignores his rivals Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich and focuses on Mr Obama.


Laying out their "fundamentally different visions for America", the former Massachusetts governor – a multimillionaire from his career in private equity – has been stressing to Wisconsin voters that Mr Obama "failed to lead a recovery" from the recent recession.

He also says: "Our president doesn't have the same feelings about American exceptionalism that we do", claiming that Mr Obama views the US as morally equal to other nations.

Polls forecast victory for Mr Romney in six of April's seven primaries, leaving Mr Santorum with only his home state of Pennsylvania. The Right-wing former senator conceded yesterday that he "has to" win the state, though it alone would not leave him with a realistic chance of stopping Mr Romney.

More and more senior Republicans have begun stressing the need to wrap up the nomination process in order to turn the party's attention to ousting Mr Obama from the White House in November.

Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader, said on Sunday the "chances are overwhelming" that Mr Romney – whom he has not endorsed – will be the party's presidential candidate.

It would be in the party's interests to "get behind the person who is obviously going to be our nominee," Mr McConnell told CNN.

Meanwhile Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin congressman behind the party's austerity Budget plan, who is tipped as a potential vice-presidential nominee, said while campaigning for Mr Romney: "There comes a point where this primary can become counterproductive".

1 comment:

  1. Joe should know. He is the second most out of touch Veep in history.

    ReplyDelete