President Barack Obama's Republican critics are celebrating his birthday, tongue-in-cheek style.
Gag cake (courtesy: Republican National Committee)
On the eve of his 51st birthday, the Republican National Committee delivered this cake on Friday to its Democratic counterpart.
"Since President Obama's birthday is tomorrow, we actually wish him a happy 50.99726 years with this 'you didn't bake that' cake," said RNC spokesman Tim Miller. (Why the strange number? It's a short story.)
"We do know that hard working, smart entrepreneurs across the country join us in wishing the president a happy birthday and hoping that next year he has more time for baking so the country can get back to job creating," Miller said.
"You didn't bake this" is, of course, a reference to Obama's remarks, at a campaign stop in Virginia, that entrepreneurs need government help in the form of infrastructure like bridges and roads, investments in education and preserving what Obama called "this unbelievable American system that allowed you to thrive" in order to be successful. "If you've got a business—you didn't build that," he said. "The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together."
It's a vanilla cake with vanilla frosting, Miller said by email.
DNC staffer Patrick Burgwinkle responded, tweeting a photo of a colleague holding up a printed sign that read "Mitt Romney's approach to the middle class: Let them eat cake!"
DNC spokeswoman Melanie Roussell added another layer, saying: "This is typical of Mitt Romney's approach to the middle class. He wants to 'Let them eat cake!' while robbing them blind."
Roussell said the DNC had sent the cake back to the RNC, along with a copy of a study of Romney's tax plan by the independent Tax Policy Center, which found that his blueprint would yield sizable tax cuts for the wealthy and a tax hike for those making less than $200,000.