Romney hits back at Obama’s attacks

WASHINGTON

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney speaks in Washington. Romney accuses Obama of a poor campaign, saying that ‘All he can do is to attack me?’ AP photo

Mitt Romney, stung by persistent attacks on the Republican challenger’s record as a businessman, tried to take the political offensive against President Barack Obama on July 16, saying that all Obama can do is attack him rather than talk about his record in the White House.

The Obama campaign has hammered at Romney’s business record, especially discrepancies over when he departed as chief of the private equity firm Bain Capital that he co-founded in the 1980s. Romney says his business record is his chief qualification to be president, and it is the source of his vast fortune, estimated at a quarter of a billion dollars. “What does it say about a president whose record is so poor that all he can do in this campaign is attack me?” Romney asked in an interview on July 16 with Fox News, the Associated Press reported.

In a separate interview with CBS, Obama said he has run mostly positive campaign ads but said those are largely ignored by the media. In his interview, Romney was asked whether Obama should apologize for statements and campaign ads suggesting that Romney has not been truthful in his accounts of his record as head of Bain. Last week, Stephanie Cutter, Obama’s deputy campaign manager, suggested Romney might be guilty of a felony if he misrepresented his position at Bain in filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “I think when people accuse you of a crime, you have every reason to go after them pretty hard, and I’m going to continue going after him,” Romney said.

Black voter turnout could be swing factor: Report
Meanwhile, leaders of the National Urban League, a black rights group, said in a report yesterday although blacks voted overwhelmingly for the Democrat in 2008, if the number of African American voters drops even 5 percentage points this year it could tip the outcome in some vital states, Reuters reported. If that voter turnout rate returned to the 2004 election levels the report estimated that Obama would lose in North Carolina and would have a tough time in Ohio and Virginia.