On Friday President Barack Obama handed the Romney campaign an early Chistmas gift by saying “the private sector is doing fine” in a press conference. Some have compared this to George W. Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” banner on the Iraq war (let the “false equivalency” wars begin). But one thing is for sure: it was a major campaign stumble and gave Republicans a sound bite they will use over and over and a statement Mitt Romney will use against Obama in debates – -forcing Obama to go on the defensive at any moment to explain it (Obama has since tried to clarify what he meant)..
Here’s the first Romney campaign ad using the statement:
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.