Obama Sound Bite the Focus of GOP Attacks

                A comment made recently by President Obama at the Asia-Pacific Economic Corporation Conference has become the ammo for many Republican attacks. The most notable of all is former Texas Governor Rick Perry’s newest television campaign advertisement.

                 The Perry campaign used a sound bite from one of Obama’s appearances at APEC last weekend in Hawaii. The President says in the video that Americans are getting “a little bit too lazy”. These are the words that have become the focus for many Republicans who make the case that President Obama is blaming Americans of the financial crisis. Others claim that this is not the first comment from Obama seems to put down or discourage Americans.  As seen in the television advertisement, Perry makes it clear that he opposes the statement going so far as to call it “pathetic”. He also speaks about the “socialist policies” that President Obama has enacted that are “bankrupting America”. Perry includes his own plan, if elected president, which includes a balanced budget 
amendment to the constitution and a plan to “uproot and overhaul” the three branches of government.

President Barrack Obama at APEC, Source:Google Images

                This advertisement is the first negative attack on President Obama in the campaign brought to you by Perry. This very well may be his tactic to gain ground after a huge decrease in the polls. Perhaps Perry is attempting to salvage his reputation that has recently been tarnished due to a slew of fumbles and misstatements. The ad is scheduled to air in Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states to hold their caucus and primary. The negative attack on Obama is surely Perry’s last effort to gain support and votes that he may have lost during the course of the campaign. As we are nearing the first caucus, in about a month, voters will begin to choose their candidates.

                Many Democratic strategists have called that advertisement absurd and that the quote was taken completely out of context. At the conference Obama was speaking about American businesses and their lack of effort to gain foreign investment.  Obama campaign advisor also went so far as to say that Perry and Romney, who also commented on the statement,

“…apparently [Romney and Perry] don’t think the president should encourage CEOs to promote the United States abroad in order to create American jobs and attract investment at home,” he said. “They have opposed the president’s efforts to create 2 million jobs now, and instead of laying out their own plan to do so, they have endorsed a radical budget plan that would wipe out investments necessary to create jobs in programs like education, research and development and clean energy and shift a greater tax burden away from millionaires and billionaires onto the backs of the middle class and seniors.” (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/68534_Page2.html#ixzz1dvj9RnTa)

                Perry was not the only Republican to voice his opinion on the matter. As stated previously, candidate Mitt Romney also shared his views on the President’s comment.  Romney stated that he believes that Obama simply does not understand this country. There was also opposition coming from the smaller campaigns. The comment has already become the subject on the campaign trail for many Republican congressional candidates. Among those included are Senate hopefuls from New Mexico and Virginia, both of which are swing states.

                It is very obvious that such a strong statement, when taken out of context, by President Obama has a powerful effect in today’s political climate. It is easy to use such a controversial sound bite in order to portray a candidate in a negative light and this will no doubt be the last example in the campaign. The uses of negative ads are persistent during campaigns. If the campaign up to this point has proven anything, it is that these candidates can easily and willfully take one another down by any means necessary. 

Sources:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/16/perry-ad-calls-obama-comment-pathetic/ 
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/68534.html 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/rick-perrys-comeback-strategy-attack-obama/2011/11/16/gIQAYSjuRN_blog.html