Following his anti-Washington platform unveiled Tuesday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is now ratcheting up his rhetoric against President Obama. "Obama's socialist policies are bankrupting America. We must stop him now," Perry says in the ad, which according to the campaign will air on national cable and local stations in Iowa.
Perry also blasts a recent Obama comment that critics have characterized as a jab at the work ethic of Americans. On Saturday, Obama told CEOs at the Asia Pacific Economic Corporation that "we"—meaning either American business leaders or everyday Americans, depending on who's interpreting—haven't done enough to attract business. "We've been a little lazy over the last couple of decades. We've kind of taken for granted—'Well, people would want to come here'—and we aren't out there hungry, selling American and trying to attract new businesses into America." Perry blasted the comment. "Can you believe that? That's what our president thinks is wrong with America?" Perry asks in the ad. "That Americans are lazy?"
[Read about Perry's proposals to overhaul government.]
Perry's hardly the first Republican to accuse Obama of being a socialist or promoting socialist policies. One of Perry's opponents, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, wrote a book titled To Save America: Stopping Obama's Secular-Socialist Machine. But the ad shows that Perry is hoping to tap into some of the anti-Washington, anti-Obama Tea Party excitement that, so far, has mostly benefited other candidates such as Herman Cain, Rep. Michele Bachmann, and Gingrich.
- See a slideshow of the Republican presidential contenders.
- Check out political cartoons about the 2012 GOP race.
- See cartoons about the federal budget and deficit.
aparker@usnews.com
Twitter: @AlexParkerDC
Reader Comments