Both Campaigns Ready for Tonight’s Debate
Oct. 3, 2012 – 10:30 a.m.
Both the Romney and Obama campaign are steadying themselves for the first presidential debate tonight.
Roll Call‘s Steve Dennis reports that the Romney camp is going after Vice President Joseph Biden’s gaffe that the middle class has been “buried.”
Biden’s statement came as he accused Mitt Romney of trying to raise taxes on the middle class to pay for bigger tax cuts for the highest earners – an attack that has been a staple of the Obama campaign ever since a Tax Policy Center study found Romney’s plan would add up only if the middle class paid higher taxes overall.
“How they can justify – how they can justify raising taxes on a middle class that has been buried the last four years?” Biden said at a campaign stop. “How in Lord’s name can they justify raising their taxes with these tax cuts?”
The Romney campaign has used this opportunity to push back on attacks that Romney’s plans would raise taxes.
And the Romney campaign quickly pounced with former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu saying on a conference call, “Thank you, Vice President Biden. For the first time in a long, long time, you’re right.”
For Romney’s campaign, the gaffe was a golden opportunity to try to refocus the debate on the still-struggling economy while making the case that the former Massachusetts governor has plenty of time to sway voters.
“A great deal of America has never seen Gov. Romney except in news clips,” Sununu said. Romney will be able to show he has “a history of understanding the impact problems have on people” and can transfer “that empathy” and his ability to solve problems that he showed as governor of Massachusetts to the presidency.
Read the entire story on RollCall.com.
For debate coverage and more politics news, follow Roll Call’s At the Races Blog.
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Tags: debates, Joseph Biden, Mitt Romney, Roll Call, Steve Dennis
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