Is Obama 'Angry'?

Mitt Romney on Wednesday accused President Barack Obama of being "angry" and demeaning the office of the presidency by using negative campaigning. He also pointed to recent comments made by Vice President Joe Biden as further proof that the Democrats are trying to do "anything in their power to get re-elected."

Romney said the president's personal attacks in political ads have been crafted to bring "a sense of enmity and jealously and anger" and take away from the real issues behind the campaign. Political ads released by both campaigns have indeed reached a new level of intensity, with each side pointing to the other's dishonesty and "unfair" attacks. An Obama ad where a steel worker essentially blames Romney for his wife's death from cancer has received particular criticism for its dubious basis in fact, as well as generally unpleasant nature.

The Republican said he instead is focusing on creating jobs for Americans and putting people back to work, but his campaign has also released ads of questionable factuality. One accuses Obama of reforming welfare to eliminate the work requirement of the program, saying the president wants to allow people to reap the benefits of the entitlement program without having to be employed. The ad does not accurately portray the president's proposal for the program, which actually involves giving states more flexibility in running welfare programs themselves with the goal of getting more people into jobs.

Romney's campaign also condemned Biden for comments Tuesday in a campaign speech when he said that Romney was going to "put ya'll back in chains" in reference to "unchaining Wall Street" by allowing big banks to make their own rules. The comment was made to a crowd that was roughly half African-American, giving the comment what Republicans called an inappropriate racial tone. Romney said the comments were a "new low" for the Obama campaign, while Biden responded to the criticism by calling Romney's policies "outrageous."