Going negative in Reno.
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney speaks at a campaign rally in Reno, Nevada October 24, 2012.
Image by Brian Snyder / Reuters
RENO, Nev. — Republican nominee Mitt Romney painted a harsh picture of life under President Barack Obama on Wednesday at a rally in Reno.
Before a crowd of 2,500, Romney laid out Obama's failings for different age brackets: for seniors, Obamacare; for middle-aged Americans, declining incomes; and for students, the national debt. The speech marked a shift in Romney's rhetoric toward the final 13 days of campaigning — reaffirming that Americans are still not over the recession and heightening the distinction between himself and the president.
As Romney laid it out, if Obama is reelected, older Americans on Medicare won't get treatment by the best specialists because Obama cuts the program to pay for Obamacare, Romney said. Those without jobs will stay that way, and those with jobs that don't provide enough economic security will be stuck with them. College graduates won't be able to get mortgages because of all the debt.
Telling the story of a man whose income dropped nearly two-thirds under Obama, Romney took a swing at Obama's campaign motto as the president embarks on a 48-hour non-stop "America Forward!" campaign tour of swing states.
"For that man I spoke with, he has to be puzzled by the president’s campaign slogan, because it doesn’t feel like forward to him," Romney told a crowd of 2,500 in a Reno convention hall. "It doesn’t feel like forward to 23 million Americans struggling to get a good job, it doesn’t feel like forward to the millions of people who don’t have as good a job as they had a few years ago. It doesn’t feel like forward, it feels like backward. We’re going to take back the white house and go get this country on the right track.'
The college student, burdened by her own debt, as well as the nation's, would be disqualified from a mortgage.
"The American dream she had been told about by you, her parents, that American dream is going to be out of reach," Romney said. "How could she get a mortgage when she’s paying back student debt, and paying back $50,000 in debt of the government."
