On the Trail

Meanwhile in Maumee, Ohio, President Obama in a fighting mood said the Affordable Healthcare Act "the law will stay". He basically boiled the act down to expanding the availability of healthcare and making sure insurance companies treat everyone "fairly". No mention of mandates or the other stuff. Ex-Governor Ted Strickland opened up with a blast at Romney's overseas bank accounts and corporations, contrasting the President who bets on the American worker and Romney who moves his money abroad and doesn't invest in America. 


President Obama will take today on the trail to announce the U.S. will take China to the World Trade Organization for its tariffs on American cars. The idea is to draw a contrast between his actions and Romney's history of off-shoring jobs to places like China despite his pledge to get tough.


David Axelrod has been tweeting up a storm over the AP stories and Vanity Fair piece on Romney's overseas accounts and his secret corporation in Bermuda. The Obama campaign has been sending out the stories to all campaign reporters.


The Romney off-shore accounts is a toxic issue and no one seems to realize how repugnant it is to the average American. I am surprised that before his second campaign for President that Romney didn't clean up his finances. Now he has opened himself up to a barrage of criticism and questioning and re-opens the whole issue of his refusal to release his tax returns.


Jack Welch of General Electric joined Rupert Murdoch in calling for the replacement of Romney's staff and Romney himself to put some meat on his policies.


The Wall Street Journal attacked Romney today for his lack of policy prescriptions. They also said that the point of Romney's loss will be his absolving President Obama of a middle class tax hike, when he agreed that the health mandate was a penalty, not a tax. But Romney has now said it is a tax but only in Massachusetts is it a mandate, which sent reporters howling.


Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard likened Romney to Michael Dukakis and John Kerry as another candidate from Massachusetts that can't beat a vulnerable incumbent. Kristol blamed Romney of playing it safe by just focusing on the economy, which will be a large factor in the campaign. He accused Romney of being on autopilot and not putting out any meat.


While the Romney people are waiting for an anemic jobs report to pounce again, Republicans are concerned that this will only solidified Romney's emphasis on the economy while Obama strips the bark off his character. As Ann Romney moaned, "Obama wants to kill Mitt."


A Pew poll shows that 67% of Americans believe the presidential campaigns will be annoying.