Mitt Romney is edging ever closer to the recent controversial comments made by campaign surrogate John Sununu, who ultimately apologized for saying President Obama needs to “learn to be an American.”
At a campaign stop near Boston Thursday, Romney doubled down on his latest attack based on an out-of-context Obama quote Romney and the GOP has pounced on all week.
Romney said the “you didn’t build that” line he has seized on in speeches and ads wasn’t a “gaffe” but is “instead [Obama’s] ideology.”
Romney explained that Obama doesn’t really understand how the country works.
“I just don’t think the president, by his comments, suggests an understanding of what it is that makes America such a unique nation,” Romney said. “Why people have come here for hundreds of years. It’s because this is the land of opportunity. We welcome people here with dreams and say to them, ‘Come build it.’ Not, ‘Come here because government will give it to you.’”
Romney’s line of attack originated from a line in a speech Obama made Friday, which has snowballed into a rallying cry for the Romney campaign and the GOP. But it’s not an entirely new idea for Romney. Back in December 2011 Romney was fond of saying Obama favors an “entitlement society,” where merit means nothing and everyone receives the same results.
“That which is earned by some is redistributed to the others,” Romney said at the time, “and the only people to enjoy truly disproportionate rewards are the people who do the redistributing—the government.”
Now, as the “you didn’t build that” attack takes center stage, Romney is reaching back to his suggestion that Obama doesn’t favor free-market capitalist system — and edging ever closer to the idea that the president doesn’t really relate to the way things are done in America.
Here’s Romney explaining gaffes vs ideologies in Massachusetts Thursday:
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