White House Press Secretary Jay Carney appears to by in sync and on message with President Obama’s campaign team and the Democratic National Committee.
Carney criticized Republican candidate Mitt Romney by name yesterday while talking about Obama’s executive policies regarding the housing market. “What we firmly do not believe is that the answer is not to simply let the housing market bottom out and let investors come in and fix the problem,” Carney said yesterday during a press gaggle. “That’s not this president’s approach.”
“That’s a specific response to what Romney was proposing?” one reporter asked, to which Carney responded, “I have heard that Governor Romney said something like that, yes.”
That shot at Romney effectively previewed an negative video released today in Arizona by the Democratic National Committee (DNC). The ad attacked Romney for suggesting that the government should, as Romney put it, “Let [the foreclosure process] run its course and hit the bottom. Allow investors to buy homes, put renters in them, fix the homes up and let it turn around and come back up.”
Carney’s criticism of Romney on economic policy, and the ensuing DNC video, complement the attacks on Romney made by Obama’s official campaign staff. David Axelrod, Obama’s top campaign strategist, recently blasted Romney for flip-flopping on social issues such as abortion and gay marriage.
Other Republican candidates, not named in particular, also drew Carney’s fire. “Now, I know there are some Republican candidates who have taken that position that don’t think the payroll tax is a good idea and therefore support raising taxes on middle-class Americans,” Carney said. “We remain hopeful that that is not an opinion broadly shared by Republicans in Congress.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., recently criticized Obama for campaigning for reelection under the guise of advocating his policies and agenda. Carney has pushed back against similar suggestions in the past.
