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Romney’s ‘Fine?’ response to Obama’s ‘the private sector is doing fine’ press conference

The Romney campaign has released a powerful new web video, “Fine?.” The new video responds to President Obama’s out of touch “the private sector is doing fine” comment with snippets of middle class workers talking about their experiences struggling with the realities of the Obama economy:

  • “We’ve seen layoffs, cutbacks.”
  • “When it’s all said and done I’m making $200 a month.”
  • “I’ve been looking for a job for two years haven’t found any.”
  • “I had to file my own personal bankruptcy and had to close my business.”
  • “Here I am. No healthcare and a slashed pension.”
  • “I just lost my job recently.”
  • “I have to work part-time in order to make ends meet.”
  • “Sometimes I feel like I’m a failure.”

Watch “Fine?”

James Pethokoukis offers some key statistics to show the private sector is not doing fine:

  • Private-sector GDP rose just 2.6 percent in the first quarter, after rising a measly 1.2 percent last year. Private-sector GDP rose 3.8 percent in 1983 and 6.5 percent in 1984 during the supply-side Reagan boom.
  • Private-sector jobs job creation has averaged just 89,000 a month during the entire Obama Recovery. During the 1983 and 1984 supply-side Reagan boom, private sector jobs increased by an average of 292,000 a month. Adjusted for population, that number is more like 375,000 private-sector jobs a month.
  • Real take-home pay is down over the past year.
  • After-tax corporate profits dropped for the first time in three years during the first quarter.

As we discussed yesterday, Obama really believes that bigger government is the way to make the economy stronger. During his “the private sector is doing fine” press conference, Obama said the thing to do is help state and local governments and the construction industry. That is exactly what he tried to do with his failed $831 billion so-called stimulus.

As the Wall Street Journal reports, Obama misdiagnoses state and local government layoffs:

“They aren’t the result of falling state and local revenues, which have increased by 6% over the last two years, according to the Census Bureau. The problem is that the cost of worker benefits is growing faster than revenues. Governments are having to lay off workers to pay for their rising pension and health bills.”

The 2012 presidential election is all about the economy. Romney’s private equity vs. Obama’s public equity. Or, as Romney put it in his “Obama’s Government-Centered Society” speech he gave after sweeping the primaries in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington, D.C.:

“The president has pledged to transform America. And he’s spent the last four years laying the foundation for a new government-centered society. I will spend the next four years rebuilding the foundation of an opportunity society led by free people and free enterprises.”

Obama’s big government approach has resulted in unemployment above 8 percent for 40 months and the weakest economic recovery in 60 years.

COMMENTS

  • Viet71

    Doesn’t attack Obama — just uses his own words to show why he shouldn’t be president.

    My estimation of Romney is raised a notch.

  • Dave_A

    TV still trumps youtube for campaign material…

    The only folks who see web-videos are your own side…

    To get the message out there, it needs to hit TV and FM radio….

  • califgal

    quick responses to all Obama nonsenses, but I am unclear how many people these videos reach.

    Can someone explain that to me. I read Red State, Hot Air, Daily Caller, etc. so on one of those blogs, I am likely to see a Romney web ad, but if I didn’t go to any of these named sites, all conservative, what would be my chances of seeing this ad and the others he released?

    I’m just looking for an explanation of how/who/what the videos target.

  • codenametimna

    As I’ve said before and will say again, Barack Hussein Obama, mmm mmm mmm, is the WORST president in the history of America. Obama makes Jimmy Carter look like a penny pinching stalwart of economics by comparison in my opinion.

    Mitt Romney’s latest ad lays it on the line and makes an effective presentation showing Barack Obama is out of touch with the American people.

    The following is my own personal observation and opinion about Barack Obama. Obama’s frequent and excessive use of illicit drugs such as cocaine and marijuana, have no doubt made an indelible mark on Obama’s subsequent policy decisions later on in life as president of the United States if you ask me. Drug users who abuse drugs in their formative years can oftentimes end up with all kinds of social and behavioral “problems” later on in life, as a direct result of their frequent, and excessive, use of illegal drugs when growing up. It was recently revealed by one of Obama’s former top advisers that Obama is ‘extremely’ introverted and doesn’t need anyone. Thus he apparently is an anti-social, introverted bureaucrat (no doubt the reason he constantly uses “teleprompters” to convey his message to the American people) and as president of the United States has direct access and a finger on America’s nuclear weapons arsenal. A former druggie who utilizes a “kill list” from within the Oval Office and has his finger on America’s nuclear arsenal. What could go wrong??

    Sometimes I think Barack Obama is back on the “blow” he used early on in his life. If you’ve noticed in many of his speeches, Obama “messes” with his nose an awful lot. He’ll wipe his nose, scratch his nose, pick his nose, and generally mess around with his nose with his hand and fingers. Cocaine users have a particular habit of messing around with their nose after snorting cocaine up their nostrils. I hate to say it, but Obama is possibly back to using “blow”, perhaps because of the pressures of life in the Oval Office and quite possibly one of the main reasons why Obama has been making such a fool of himself in front of the TV cameras.

    Obama’s “doing just fine” fiasco, is just one of many incidences of Obama making absolutely NO sense at all. And it has become a common occurrence with him and makes him appear ‘out of touch’ and from another planet for that matter. No one in his or her ‘right mind’ would deliberately tell the American people and thus the whole world, that the private sector in America is “doing just fine” when in fact nothing could be further from the truth! It was only afterward that those within his administration compelled Obama to reverse course and correct his ‘wacky’ previous statement(s), or else we likely would have never heard an apology from him. Because the fact of the matter is Obama probably really does believe the private sector is doing just fine. Because if he didn’t believe it, he sure wouldn’t have told the American people on live broadcast TV that he thought it was. Unless he’s back to snorting cocaine again and/or smoking too much hooch?? Then I could understand it.

  • acat

    over at mediaite so .. not the best reportage ever… but Jindal comes through loud and clear, hitting the same theme Romney’s hitting.

    The money quote:

    ?Mr. President, I?ve got a message for you: The private sector is not doing well when 23 million Americans are unemployed and underemployed in this great country. This president, the private sector is so foreign to him he might need a passport to actually go visit and he might need a translator to help him talk to folks in the private sector.? — Jindal

    If I were Jay Dardenne, I’d be brushing up…

    Mew

  • lineholder

    Well, if you’re a lefty, you never let a crisis go to waste…especially under President Obama’s admin

    What’s ironic in the extreme is…WI! Job growth in WI! When the people knew that state government spending would restrained, private sector activity picked up at the speed of a rocket

    video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

    • lineholder

      article and video at mediaite

      http://www.mediaite.com/tv/matthews-goes-nuclear-on-conservative-during-msnbc-panel-heres-the-idiot-republican-argument/

      • lineholder

        Matthews’ comments in this particular situation deserve to be called out. I know, I know…it’s Chris Matthews.

        Here’s the advice he gave to Obama….

        “He?s got to be aggressive. He?s got to be big time. Stop this nickel and dime ? a couple bucks for the teachers. A couple bucks for the firefighters. I?m going to reduce the payroll tax. This is pissant. You can?t get reelected with tactics. He needs a strategy. Which is, we?re different from the Republicans. They?re basically free-marketers who sit around and wait for business to deliver this country from hell. Business has let us down”

        • lineholder

          decided that they weren’t going to invest where this kind of anti-market rhetoric gets expressed.

          Then again…it is Matthews. So no…he’d just keep whining and crying about how “the government has to fix it for us”.

          • http://www4.webng.com/rickbull/lostlucky/ rickbull

            The private sector wants to sell products to liberals as well as conservatives. They don’t care what your politics is. “Buy my stuff!!!”

  • AnnaD

    The flaw I saw is that all the faces were white. An identical commercial should also be created showing all minority faces (black, Hispanic, American Indian). And as previously noted, if these were run on TV, they might peel away O-bummer’s support in those groups. I hope nobody finds this comment offensive!!

    • Melody Warbington (rwm52)

      Said pretty much the same thing here.

      • AnnaD

        And you were right, MW.

  • lineholder

    trending charts and totals that completely and totally disprove Obama’s statements that “the private sector is fine”.

    http://wallstreetpit.com/92875-its-the-private-sector-stupid