Obama Campaign Jumps on Romney Comments on ‘the Very Poor’ [View all]

[bigtree]

Feb 1, 2012 11:21am

In an interview this morning on CNN, anchor Soledad O’Brien asked Romney about a new poll indicating that when it comes to “understanding the needs of average Americans,” President Obama scored 55 percent while he merited 39 percent.

He added: “I’m in this race because I care about Americans. I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it. I’m not concerned about the very rich, they’re doing just fine. I’m concerned about the very heart of America, the 90, 95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling, and I’ll continue to take that message across the nation.”

Before lunch, Obama 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina had tweeted:

So much for "we're all in this together." Romney today: "I'm not concerned about the very poor"
3 hours ago

O’Brien had pressed Romney to explain what he meant. “You just said I’m not concerned about the very poor because they have a safety net. And I think there are lots of very poor Americans who are struggling who would say that sounds odd. Can you explain that?”

“Well, you had to finish the sentence, Soledad. I said I’m not concerned about the very poor that have the safety net, but if it has holes in it, I will repair them…The – the challenge right now – we will hear from the Democrat Party the plight of the poor, and – and there’s no question. It’s not good being poor, and we have a safety net to help those that are very poor. But my campaign is focused on middle-income America. My campaign – you can choose where to focus. You can focus on the rich. That’s not my focus. You can focus on the very poor. That’s not my focus. My focus is on middle income Americans, retirees living on social security, people who cannot find work, folks who have kids that are getting ready to go to college. That – these are the people who’ve been most badly hurt during the Obama years.”


read: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/02/obama-campaign-jumps-on-romney-comments-on-the-very-poor/