Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney on Friday ripped President Barack Obama over his annual Hawaii vacation, painting him as out of touch with Americans' economic suffering. "He's in Hawaii right now. We're out in the cold and the rain and the wind because we care about America, he's out there. He just finished his 90th round of golf," the former Massachusetts governor told a boisterous crowd in Iowa.
Romney was speaking at a rally four days before this heartland state holds its presidential nominating caucus, the first battle in the state-by-state fight to pick a Republican challenger to Obama in the November 2012 elections. "We've got 25 million Americans that are out of work, or have stopped looking for work, or are underemployed, home values have come down," he told the crowd, which braved an icy drizzle and a near-freezing wind at the morning event.
"Do you want more of Barack Obama?" he called out, drawing a loud "no" from the assembled Iowans and a grin from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who was here campaigning for him. Obama, who was taking his annual Christmas and New Year vacation with his family in his native state of Hawaii, faces an uphill fight for re-election, weighed down by the sour economy and historically high unemployment. Romney pointed out a sign at the rally that read "In Obama We Trusted, Now Our Economy Is Busted" and declared: "You got it right, brother."
The former governor, whose vast campaign warchest and high-profile endorsements have fed an image as the candidate to beat for the Republican nomination, said Obama was trying to convince voters that "it could be worse." "That goes down with Marie Antoinette, 'let them eat cake,'" he said, referring to remarks popularly believed to have been uttered by the Austrian-born French queen ultimately beheaded during France's revolution.
Maura Kenworthy, 35, told AFP she voted for Obama in 2008 and felt sympathy for the embattled president - "I don't envy his job" - but will not support him next year "unless something drastically changes." "I'm looking for somebody who will think on their own, who will make a decision and stick with it, and who will turn around the economy," said Kenworthy, who brought her eight-month-old and five-year-old children to the rally.