Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney‘s campaign released an Internet video on Sunday in an attempt to further emphasize the fact that Barack Obama is out of touch with the U.S. economy. On Friday, the president stated that the private sector was in good shape.
The 54-second video starts with Mr. Obama telling reporters attending a news conference that “the private sector is doing fine.” He then explains that the part of the economy that is currently struggling is the public sector.
“Where we’re seeing weaknesses in our economy, [this is] to do with state and local government,” he says.
Three men and five women are then shown talking about their own misfortunes. One man claims that he is only making “$200 a month”. A woman says that she has been looking for a job for the past two years. Another woman points out that she has “no health care” and has been left with “a slashed pension”. A fourth woman, who appears to be in her 60s, tells the interviewer that she has “to work part time in order to make ends meet”.
As the camera zooms toward him, Mr. Obama‘s claim that “the private sector is doing fine” is repeated three times.
The video ends with a message on a black background, maybe suggesting that under the current president, there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
“No, Mr. President, we are not “doing fine”, the message reads.
Following Mr. Obama‘s press conference on Friday, Mr. Romney suggested that the president was blaming the lack of funding to the public sector for the woes of the economy. He also referred to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who recently survived a recall election by winning around 53 percent of the votes, to emphasize that the incumbent president was not listening to the electorate’s message that the country needed a smaller government.
Mr. Obama “wants another stimulus. He wants to hire more government workers. He says we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers,” Mr. Romney told supporters in Utah. “Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did. It’s time for us to cut back on government and help the American people,” he said.
Meanwhile, the latest polls show that the president and the presumptive Republican nominee remain in a virtual tie five months ahead of the Nov. 6 election.
