We're in campaign mode now ladies and gentlemen, and anyone who was under the impression that the president wouldn't come out swinging was mistaken.
Last night, during his first official fundraising event of the 2012 campaign, President Obama spoke to supporters in Chicago and presented us with a teaser trailer of what the campaign is going to look like.
Suffice to say, it looks like the president is more than happy to have an ideological debate with the Republicans, because he knows that they will lose. And it appears that he will have no reservations about running on the accomplishments made during his first term in office.
(Reuters) - President Barack Obama urged Democrats on Thursday to help him "finish the job" at the first events of his 2012 re-election bid, appealing for higher taxes on the wealthy and a rejection of Republican budget policies.
Obama, seeking to reignite the energy of supporters that propelled his candidacy in 2008, said "extraordinary progress" has been made during his two years in the White House but "we've still got work to do." [...]
The Republican approach, he said, is that "we can't afford to do big things anymore" and says to the underprivileged, "tough luck, they're on their own." [...]
"If we apply some practical common sense to this, we can solve our fiscal challenges and still have the America that we believe in. That's what this budget debate is about and that's what the presidential campaign is going to be about," he said.
Speaking to supporters today, President Obama specifically began initiating the ideological debate by taking another swing at the Paul Ryan Path to Poverty by offering a glimpse of what the Republican vision for the country would lead to.
CHICAGO (AFP) – US President Barack Obama accused his Republican foes of wanting to turn the United States into a "Third World" country Thursday as he rallied support for his reelection campaign. [...]
"Under their vision, we can't invest in roads and bridges and broadband and high-speed rail," Obama told a select group of the Democratic faithful at the second of three fundraising events in his hometown of Chicago.
"I mean, we would be a nation of potholes, and our airports would be worse than places that we thought -- that we used to call the Third World, but who are now investing in infrastructure."
Republican plans to shrink the reach of government is "not a vision that's impelled by the numbers" but a "choice" to give a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the rich rather than ask those who have been "blessed" to "give a little more," he said.
Remarks made to other supporters by the president were also caught by a live mic, whether accidental or intended we may never know, and he specifically questioned the motives of the man Republicans who have put in charge of their budget, Rep. Paul Ryan.
"When Paul Ryan says his priority is to make sure, he's just being America's accountant," Obama told his supporters at the event, according to remarks relayed on a live mic and reported by CBS News pooler Mark Knoller.
"This is the same guy that voted for two wars that were unpaid for, voted for the Bush tax cuts that were unpaid for, voted for the prescription drug bill that cost as much as my health care bill -- but wasn't paid for. So it's not on the level," Obama said.
Game. Set. Match.
Now I fully expect the media to accuse the president of being "mean" after nearly two years straight of calls for him to use the "bully pulpit."
Adding... The Republican House of Representatives voted to pass Paul Ryan's Medicare and Medicaid killing Path to Poverty. Game on.