President Obama made his case for a second term on Thursday before a boisterous crowd of 1,500 supporters gathered on the campus of Cuyahoga Community College near Cleveland, Ohio.
His speech began just as his opponent this Fall, Mitt Romney, finished delivering a competing address across the state in Cincinnati. Both candidates spent the majority of their time trashing each other, with Romney accusing Obama of racking up debt and turning a blind eye to jobs, and Obama arguing that Romney’s economic vision would ruin the middle class.
Obama assailed Romney — and his “allies in Congress” — for supporting a GOP budget plan that would significantly reduce spending over the next ten years. Romney, meanwhile, claimed that Obama has failed to put forth any new ideas to create jobs.
Romney took the first shots in his pre-buttal to Obama.
“He’s going to be a person of eloquence as he describes his plans for making the economy better, but don’t forget — he’s been president for three and a half years, and talk is cheap. Action speaks very loud.”
“He’ll say, well, but the things he’s been doing have been good and helped to create growth and put people back to work,” Romney added. “Oh, really? Go check on that.”
Minutes later, Obama hit back.
“Governor Romney and the Republicans who run Congress believe that if you simply take away regulations and cut taxes by trillions of dollars, the market will solve all of our problems on its own…If you agree with that, you should vote for them and I promise you they will take us in that direction.”
“If you want to give the policies of the last decade another try, then you should vote for Mr. Romney,” he added.
The president lamented the fact that lawmakers are currently ensnared in partisan gridlock, and urged voters to break the “stalemate.”
“What’s holding us back is a stalemate in Washington between two fully different views of which direction America should take…and this election is your chance to break that stalemate.”
Click here for the AP’s take on the two speeches…
