Using the Tuesday New Hampshire primary as an opening to slam the White House, GOP officials Monday turned negative and personal against President Obama, belittling his vacations, fancy fund-raisers and magical "pixie dust" they say he used to con voters in 2008.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus also put down the president's reputation for giving lofty speeches: "We all know he is in love with the sound of his own voice."
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The attacks came during a conference call with reporters, Priebus and New Hampshire GOP Party Chairman Wayne MacDonald, who predicted that his state would vote Republican in the fall because Obama's 2008 promises of hope and change were never met.
"Hope and change may have defined Obama's 2008 campaign, but since then hope has faded and the change has been in the wrong direction," said MacDonald. "In 2008 Obama ran on bold promises and lofty rhetoric because he had no record. In 2012 he will run on negative attacks and misleading statements because he does have a record, a record of failed policies."
Priebus led the tough talk on Obama, and suggested that his party will have a lot more to say. He cited the research the RNC has done, cataloging every Obama statement, press release and speech, with hopes of using some of his words against him in the fall election.
[See pictures of GOP candidates in New Hampshire.]
"That once glow surrounding the Obama, I guess, parade, is now replaced with the gray of unemployed Americans, record debt, higher health care costs, glitzy fund raisers, vacations and broken promises," said Priebus.
He said that voters agree, as seen in the president's double-digit drop in public approval ratings. And he wants to push them lower.
"At the Republican National Committee we've cataloged every single speech, every press release, every word that has come out of this president's mouth who, as we all know, is in love with the sound of his own voice, and will use those words against him," said Priebus.
It's part of the GOP's effort to saddle the president with elements of his record that the public doesn't like. "He's got a record to run on. We don't see the pixie dust and the magic out there anymore as far as what this president believes he can sell to the American people, because I think the American people are tired of the pomp and circumstance, the pageantry and the speeches," said Priebus.
He even slapped at Obama's famous pledge to unite the nation, a promise that died in the halls of Congress.
"Remember his famous phrases, 'There aren't blue states of America. There aren't red states of America. It's the United States of America?' Now he wants to make us the Divided States of America by spreading enough hate around for everybody, Republican versus Democrat, rich versus poor. That's his strategy."
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Sick and Disgusted of TX 11:07AM January 10, 2012