With Rick Santorum suspending his bid for the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday, the preliminaries are over and the two leading candidates in the 2012 presidential election are warming up for the main event as President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, now almost certain to be the GOP candidate, are increasingly focused on each other.
While Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul formally remain in the race for the Republican nomination, the Obama team sent out a fundraising email on Thursday to supporters under the presidents name noting, weve got our opponent. In turn, Romneys team targeted Obama on a number of fronts after Santorum ended his campaign earlier in the week.
On Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden was in New Hampshire -- a state where Romney won the Republican primary and is looking to take from Obamas column in November -- and the Romney team fired away.
Nearly four years after the Obama-Biden campaign told New Hampshire voters that people dont want to hear politicians attack each other, Vice President Biden is back in the state to do just that, said Ryan Williams, a spokesman for Romney. And why has the Obama-Biden team resorted to a nasty White House race? They cant run on President Obamas failed record of high unemployment, soaring gas prices, and trillions of dollars in new debt and deficits.
This week, the Romney camp also trotted out U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., to try to woo women voters from Obama -- and highlight their candidates appeal in the Granite State. Ayotte slammed Obama, insisting that women have been hit hardest by his failed economic policies -- a refrain that is expected to grow louder from the Romney team.
A poll unveiled Thursday finds voters trust Romney more on the economy than they do Obama, though the Republican hopeful has generally been trailing the Democrat incumbent in most national polls and in surveys of key states.
The poll of likely voters from Rasmussen Reports finds 49 percent of those surveyed trust Romney more on the economy while 39 percent think Obama can do a better job of managing it.
The poll of 1,000 likely voters was taken April 10-11 and had a margin of error of +/- 3 percent.
Appearing on Fox News this week, Romney looked to sharpen his attacks on how Obama has handled the economy.
Hes really trying to divert from the failure of his record, which is that he has not created jobs, Romney told Fox News before echoing Ayottes line of attack. Hes lost 800,000 jobs during his presidency and, by the way, do you know what percentage of those jobs lost were lost by women? Over 92 percent of the jobs lost under this president were lost by women. His policies have been really a war on women. And so he wants to divert from that and see if we can't find someone to attack, some scapegoat. Is there anyone who believes that Congress needs more money? Is there anyone who believes that dividing America and trying to find some group to tax more is somehow going to create more jobs?
With Romney emerging in the primary contest, Obamas team quickly looked to hone their own attacks against the presumptive Republican nominee.
Mitt Romney is almost certainly our opponent in this election, noted Jim Messina, Obamas campaign manager, late on Wednesday. That means America will have a very clear choice come November.
Messina looked to stress Obamas record on the economy, trying to contrast it with Romneys ideas.
The president believes that this is a make-or-break moment for the middle class, and that without a strong and thriving middle class, we'll never have the growth we need, Messina said. That's why he's fighting for an economy rooted in our fundamental values -- one in which Americans can not only find work, but where folks who work hard can get ahead, responsibility is rewarded, and everyone, from Main Street to Wall Street, plays by the same rules.
He's fighting for an economy that's built to last, with a genuine and sustained commitment to education and training, advanced manufacturing, and homegrown, American energy, Messina continued. And he's fighting to ensure that the responsibility for delivering on that future is broadly shared, which means ending the budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthy that add to our deficits and crowd out the very investments we need to grow.
Messina went on the attack against Romneys economic plans.
Mitt Romney has a different, and frighteningly familiar, view, Messina insisted. He thinks you grow our economy from the top down. He'd take us back to an economy based on outsourcing, risky financial schemes, and massive tax cuts for the wealthy. He'd return to the policy of allowing Wall Street, Big Oil, and other special interests to write their own rules.
Messina slammed Romney on a number of fronts, insisting the Republicans positions are the most radically anti-women of any candidate in a generation and maintaining Romney would repeal Obamacare. Messina also hammered Romney on foreign policy and accused the Republican of trying to end Medicare as we know it.
The Obama team also launched a video this week attacking Romney in his own words.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
