DNC Attacks Romney, Says He's Out of Touch
The Republican nominee has yet to be formally announced. But the Democratic National Committee has already chosen its enemy: former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
The DNC released a three-page memo on Friday saying that Romney has had a “rough couple of weeks” due to his “self-inflicted wounds” and inability to garner enthusiasm from the GOP base. He also “callously” stood with Wall Street over Main Street. The memo regards him as an “out of touch” candidate with policies that would harm middle-class Americans.
"To say that Mitt Romney flips around on his positions more than a weathervane would be an insult to weathervanes," DNC Communications Director Brad Woodhouse wrote. "As Mitt Romney clings to his status as a frontrunner of the GOP presidential field, even Republicans seem to be nervous about who Mitt Romney really is and what he actually believes."
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One of Romney’s biggest challenges in the race so far has been convincing conservative voters that he is a true conservative candidate. Romney passed a health care plan in Massachusetts similar to Obamacare and has done an about-face on social issues important to conservatives such as abortion and gay marriage.
Romney signed a pledge sponsored by the National Organization for Marriage in August promising to support a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as the union of a man and woman. It was in 1994, however, when Romney wrote a letter to a gay Republican group saying he was working hard for gay equality.
In the case of abortion, Romney was pro-choice before his governorship but later changed to pro-life.
The memo also compares Romney’s economic and foreign policies with those of President Obama. The DNC charges that Romney would allow homeowners to “hit rock bottom” in the middle of the foreclosure crisis while Obama is showing leadership by taking executive actions to make it easier for Americans to stay in their homes.
In an interview with the Las Vegas Review last week, Romney stated:
"As to what to do for the housing industry specifically and are there things that you can do to encourage housing: One is, don't try to stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom.”
Romney later expounded on his comment, saying that, “the right course is to let the markets work,” but not before the DNC took its cue to portray Romney as an uncaring and insensitive candidate while Obama is working hard to save middle-class America.
The document also hit Romney on foreign policy. Romney criticized the president of withdrawing troops from Iraq too soon for “political calculation.”
"This is an astonishing charge coming from Mitt Romney who has taken multiple positions on virtually every major foreign policy issue that the U.S. has confronted over the past several years and changes his tune day in and day out for sheer political gain," Woodhouse wrote.
The fact that the DNC has already begun attacking Romney may be a sign of his strength.
“If Romney is the Republican nominee, it’s a nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue,” one White House strategist told Capitol Hill Blue.
“It is not what we need to give the president a second term.”
"Democrats realize that Mitt Romney is the only Republican who can defeat President Obama in 2012. They are desperate to hold onto power, and will do and say anything to distract from President Obama's abysmal economic record," Romney campaign spokesman Ryan Williams told CNN.
The DNC and Romney’s campaign could not be reached for comment.
