Spinners and Winners
A few weeks ago Spinners and Winners went through the top five things Mitt Romney has said that Democrats would use against him if he wins the Republican nomination. Now the flip side: The top five things from Barack Obama you can be sure Republicans will use over and over again in the fall campaign.
"Fourteen days after I signed our Recovery Act into law, we are seeing shovels hit the ground," Obama said in March of 2009. Last year, when it was clear the stimulus did not create the 4 million jobs analysts had predicted it would, the president back-tracked, joking at an economic forum, "Shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected."
In February 2009 Obama said, "I'm pledging to cut the deficit we inherited by half by the end of my first term in office." After Obama uttered those words, the deficit actually shot up to $1.4 trillion dollars in 2009. It then came down to $1.3 trillion in 2010, then stayed flat for 2011. The Congressional Budget office estimates 2012's deficit will be $1.1 trillion dollars -- a far cry from cutting the deficit in half.
Republicans will attack not just his words, but also his actions, making hay out of the president bowing to foreign dignitaries.
The number one quote that Republicans will likely play over and over again was said nearly three years ago, in an interview the newly-inaugurated president gave to NBC's Today Show.
"If I don't have this done in three years, then there is going to be a one-term proposition," Obama said.
Mitt Romney already talks about this all the time.
"He said if he could turn the economy around in 3 years he would be looking at a one term proposition, well we're here to collect," Romney told a crowd in Grand Rapids, Mich., in mid February. "We're here to collect."
Watch the full show for the full top five.