Presidential Campaign Round-Up

Mitt Romney blasted President Barack Obama in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Romney said that Obama has “diminished American leadership” in the world, and blamed Obama for potentially significant defense cuts passed by Congress as part of the debt ceiling compromise. Vice President Joe Biden launched a stinging rebuttal, calling Romney’s speech a “litany of untruths.”
A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll gave Obama a six-point lead over Romney, up from a three-point lead in June. The poll was notable for Romney’s very weak favorable ratings; only 35 percent of voters viewed Romney favorably, while 40 percent viewed him negatively. The poll also indicated that Obama’s attacks on Romney are sticking. 32 percent said what they’ve heard about Romney’s tax returns makes them feel more negatively toward Romney, while only 4 percent said it made them feel more positive.
Mitt Romney was, once again, not involved in decision-making, this time about destroying records related to his time in charge of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Romney campaign spokesperson Andrea Saul said that Romney “resigned from SLOC in early 2002 to run for governor of Massachusetts and was not involved in the decision-making regarding the final disposition of records.” The explanation echoes Romney’s previous and ultimately false claims to have left Bain Capital before a series of politically difficult decisions were made.
Romney is heading abroad for his first foreign trip as the presumptive GOP nominee. Romney will visit the United Kingdom for the opening of the Olympics and meetings with British leaders, before traveling to Israel on Saturday. Romney didn’t forget Poland; he’ll finish his trip there.
The Obama Campaign has launched a new ad attacking Romney over the “you didn’t build that” kerfuffle. The ad features Obama talking directly to the camera, saying, “Those ads taking my words about small business out of context, they’re flat out wrong.”
Meanwhile, pretty much every business owner Romney finds to criticize the out-of-context version of Obama’s quote turns out to have made money thanks to government help. So far, Romney has run an ad featuring a businessman who received nearly $1 million in government loans, two companies that received thousands of dollars in government contracts, and a business owner able to start his company thanks to local government bonding. Nevertheless, none of the business owners seemed to see a problem; one owner who received money from the government said, “We don’t need any more of government’s help. We haven’t had any.”