Obama Campaign Jumps on Romney Comments on ‘the Very Poor’

[bigtree]

Feb 1, 2012 11:21am

In an interview this morning on CNN, anchor Soledad O’Brien asked Romney about a new poll indicating that when it comes to “understanding the needs of average Americans,” President Obama scored 55 percent while he merited 39 percent.

He added: “I’m in this race because I care about Americans. I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it. I’m not concerned about the very rich, they’re doing just fine. I’m concerned about the very heart of America, the 90, 95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling, and I’ll continue to take that message across the nation.”

Before lunch, Obama 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina had tweeted:

So much for "we're all in this together." Romney today: "I'm not concerned about the very poor"
3 hours ago

O’Brien had pressed Romney to explain what he meant. “You just said I’m not concerned about the very poor because they have a safety net. And I think there are lots of very poor Americans who are struggling who would say that sounds odd. Can you explain that?”

“Well, you had to finish the sentence, Soledad. I said I’m not concerned about the very poor that have the safety net, but if it has holes in it, I will repair them…The – the challenge right now – we will hear from the Democrat Party the plight of the poor, and – and there’s no question. It’s not good being poor, and we have a safety net to help those that are very poor. But my campaign is focused on middle-income America. My campaign – you can choose where to focus. You can focus on the rich. That’s not my focus. You can focus on the very poor. That’s not my focus. My focus is on middle income Americans, retirees living on social security, people who cannot find work, folks who have kids that are getting ready to go to college. That – these are the people who’ve been most badly hurt during the Obama years.”


read: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/02/obama-campaign-jumps-on-romney-comments-on-the-very-poor/

[TheWraith]

1. To Romney, "the very poor" are anyone making less than a quarter million a year. nt

[liberal N proud]

2. The Democrats and Obama Campaign need to make a commerical with a clip of that

Romney dilivered GOLD with that remark.

[Enrique]

3. look how he's dividing the American people into classes

isn't that what he's accusing Obama of doing?

[Frances]

4. Seniors living on nothing but social security

are the very poor

[Ian62]

5. the noose

That one is going to play and play and be a noose around Romney's neck for a long time to come.

[DonCoquixote]

6. exactly

we need to repeat repeat and repeat, as fux news will do their best to make people forget forget and forget

[onenote]

7. If the very poor don't need help, why does the middle class?

My question for Mitt is this: why does he care about helping the middle class if the worst that can happen if they're not helped is that slide down into the ranks of the very poor, who apparently are doing just fine.

Idiot.