Clinton stars in new Obama ad
(CNN) – Former President Bill Clinton takes center stage in a new ad released by President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign on Thursday.
The former president, who’s been a top surrogate for Obama this year, largely praises Obama in the spot and attempts to draw a contrast between Republicans and Democrats this election year.
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"This is a clear choice. The Republican plan is to cut more taxes on upper income people and go back to deregulation. That's what got us in trouble in the first place,” Clinton says in the ad. "President Obama has a plan to rebuild America from the ground up, investing in innovation, education, and job training. It only works if there is a strong middle class."
He later adds: "That's what happened when I was President. We need to keep going with his plan."
The 30-second ad, "Clear Choice," will air in the battleground states of New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada.
Responding to the ad, Romney's campaign pointed to the Republican candidate's plan to spur economic growth.
"Mitt Romney's 'sterling' private sector experience and his Plan for a Stronger Middle Class offer a new direction. He will jumpstart economic growth, creating 12 million jobs and bringing hope to the middle class," said Romney spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg.
Her statement referred to Clinton's praise of Romney's corporate experience, when he said on CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight" in May that Romney had a "sterling business career" as CEO of Bain Capital. Clinton faced strong criticism from Democrats who had been using Romney's corporate history as an attack line.
In his stump speeches, Obama frequently credits Clinton-era policies for the strong economy in the '90s, arguing the country fared well under Clinton because he "understood what it takes for this economy."
"Nobody has a better grasp and understanding of the issues than this man," Obama said at a June fundraiser in New York.
Clinton was used in another political ad recently, though much to his chagrin.
Mitt Romney’s team featured the former president positively in a recent spot that attacks Obama for “gutting” the work requirement in the welfare reform law signed off by Clinton in 1996. The ad was part of a weeks-long campaign by Team Romney that leveled charges at Obama over his administration’s welfare adjustments.
However, Clinton himself, as well as fact-check groups and several news outlets, including CNN, have all said the Romney claim that Obama ended the work requirement is untrue.
Clinton had a staring role in an Obama campaign video in late April, with the former president praising the current president's role in last year's military raid that killed Osama Bin Laden.
Clinton, who was set to headline a pro-Obama super PAC event this month, will further cement his role as a major player in this year's election when he delivers a prime time speech at the Democratic National Convention in September.
The former president also joined Obama at an April fundraiser in Virginia.
- CNN Political Editor Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
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- Untitled
Gurgyl
I am sending my special love and affection to you and your family. We love you so much. God bless you, obama and USA.
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You ROCK, Gurgyl !!!
As for Romney's "sterling" business career.......it is sterling in this sense: he was in business to make a lot of money, and he did. Al Capone was in business and made a lot of money too........so by applying the same standard, I guess he had a sterling career also........but I wouldn't want him to be president. Same with Romney......don't just look at how much money he made.......look at how he made it and at what cost to the rest of us.
When I run for office, I want the disbarred, disgraced, adulterous sex offender to put in a good word for me too. What a great representative for this administration
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Balh, blah, blah....Question: under what subterranean rock is The Shrub sequestered? Clinton has been enjoying daylight and sunshine since he left office, his PERSONAL issue aside, he did an OUTSTANDING job as President. The murdering, profiteering, lying Shrub not so much. Hell, NOT AT ALL.
"The former president, who’s been a top surrogate for Obama this year, largely praises Obama in the spot and attempts to draw a contrast between Republicans and Democrats this election year."
Okay folks, here's the contrast in true, simple terms: Obama = Collectivism (a form of communism)
Romney = A chance to thwart a government takeover.
Look at all you nice little GOP minions posting today! Good minions!!! Telling those evil democrats how the GOP will help the poor and middle class people. Hehehe. Now obey your supreme GOP master like good little minions and VOTE AGAINST YOUR OWN INTERESTS!!!!! Atta minions!!!! You go!!!!
@lolo – wow girl, boy, whatever you are: you've got it backwards.
I hope there are more positive ads like this. I hope Obama replaces Biden with Hilary. What a dynamic ticket that would be to recharge his election campaign (and get more money). I think there should be more ads about his achievements and the positives of Obamacare and his Medicare approach.
On the other side I hope we see some ads of how Ryan's radical Medicare and Tax plans would hurt the middle class. Ryan is scary and too extreme. He has absolutely no foreign policy experience and is not ready to be president.
@ John, Pa.
Wow ! I see you quit school as soon as you could. What is it in Pa. ? Age 16
Everything you have listed goes back to George Bush and Cheney. Do some Fact Checks if you want to post.
So now Bill Clinton is asking the American people to believe that Obama's failed policies are the same as HIS?!! HAHAHAHA!!! I can't believe Bill Clinton is associating himself with this miserable failure. Obama IS NO BILL CLINTON. He is a far left ideologue that refuses to work with people. He'd rather attack, demonize and divide in true leftist form.
BTW people, Bill Clinton had the luck of inheriting a recovering economy, boosted by the dot com explosion, a Republican congress that kept government spending IN CHECK and he left office just as it was imploding and heading a recession George Bush along with a huge terrorism problem. Bill Clinton was very, very lucky. And there is no turning the clock back to the 90's because the country is now on the verge of bankruptcy thanks to Obama and his $1.5 TRILLION yearly deficits.
Quite unbelieveable and desperate for Obama to leech off of Bill Clinton like this, especailly after he was labelled a racist by the Obama campaign in 2008.
Gurgyl
I am sending my special love and affection to you and your family. We love you so much. God bless you, obama and USA
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Welcome back Gurgyl!!!
Obama 2012.
There is no doubt that Bill Clinton is the "big dog" on the block. When he speaks, people listen. I expect that when he is done talking........the GOP will be left whimpering in the corner and licking their wounds.
@John,PA
let's face it, with due respect, every problem you listed above were created by GWB and the GOP. After all, they inherited a surplus and a stable and thriving America and what they did was squandered that surplus and ruinded our economy and our social and moral standing in the world, with the end result being record unemployment, a housing crisis, high inflation, a broken banking system, two deadly and costly wars, a severely inflated national debt and the worst economic desaster since the Great Depression.
If you put your bias aside for a moment John, you'd agree that the stimulus packages passed by the Obama administration were passed out of NECESSITY to stabilize and jumpstart the economy, to create jobs and provide emergency assistance for the millions of unemployed so they can put food on the table for their love ones and keep a roof over their families heads while they look for work. Let me ask you a fair question John...was President Obama wrong to appropriate millions in unemployment benefits to help these unemployed and struggling Americans of which many were also republicans/conservatives? And while we spent trillions in two foreign wars killing innocent people and continue to do so today in the Afghan war the GOP abandoned and prolonged to invade Iraq, these stimulus bills were spent in America on Americans in a time of national crisis. So again, was President Obama wrong to look out for our most important asset, the American people? Furthermore John, had there not been an economic crisis, do you believe for a minute that there would have been a stimulus bill? I doubt it.
Really?
@lolo – wow girl, boy, whatever you are: you've got it backwards.
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Actually, and to the everlasting shame of Reagan Republicans who cringe at the complete mental and political breakdown of their once cogent, thriving and venerable Party, lolo's got it quite right.
Since my previous very civil comments seem to have been censored: Clinton and Obama deserve each other; if you think Obama had done well, then you will be soon fitted for a brown-shirt, complete with an Obama armband. The rest of us will be waiting for the night of shattered glass.
romneys already lost he just doesnt know it yet nad neither do his blind folllowers
so obama wants a government takeover and romney wants a corporate takeover. does it seem to anyone else that no one wants the people of this country to have a say in where we go from here?
5 Broken Obama Broken Promises:
• Cut the Deficit in Half
• Fix the Economy
• Close Guantanamo Bay
• Televise Health Care Debate
• Increase Transparency
What do you Dems have to say for this waste of US time and money??????? I haven't even touched on the huge debt and squandering of tax payer money on political favors and expanding of a bureaucratic government.
Sorry Mr. Clinton, I liked you as President. However Obama is NO Bill Clinton.
Bill could work with a Republican Congress, Obama refuses to do so. He threatens auto vetos of any house bills? This is not a President but a joke on us the People of the United States of America.
Democrats for Romney !!! Join the movement today...
I don't understand why, for the most part, Obama's campaign strategy has been to paint Romney as an out of touch, "evil" rich person, instead of bragging about all of his accomplishments the last 4 years as President. It seems like common sense to me and seems like it would give him the upper hand in the race. He must not believe in his accomplishments.
@Really? Bill Clinton was never disbarred; here are some folks who were:
– Former VP Spiro Agnew
– Former President Richard Nixon
– Andrew Thomas (former County Attorney of Maricopa County, Arizona, and a former close confederate of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio)
@timaahhyy: "so obama wants a government takeover and romney wants a corporate takeover."
False on the first one; true on the second.
@George: "if you think Obama had done well, then you will be soon fitted for a brown-shirt, complete with an Obama armband. The rest of us will be waiting for the night of shattered glass."
Your ignorance of history and the definition of fascism is astounding! Republicans are the ones who are calling for the rounding up of citizens (gays in concentration camps); the ones putting corporations uber alles; the ones with the loyalty pledges (putting Grover Norquist and his no-taxes pledge ahead of the Constitution) and litmus tests (you'll get "primaried" if the NRA or the Koch brothers don't like you).
Pull your head out and start thinking before you next post!
So Democrats who say Republicans are waging a war on women, highlight the ultimate example of abusing women in an ad. Got it. We're going to have fun with this on the show today.
@Blah blah the wheel's off your trailer in response to John, PA: "So again, was President Obama wrong to look out for our most important asset, the American people? Furthermore John, had there not been an economic crisis, do you believe for a minute that there would have been a stimulus bill? I doubt it."
Thank you for your great post! It's funny how so many of these GOPers are against spending money on our own people!
@timaahhyy-
Um... That's why we vote, and that's why we have a government in the first place. We do have a say. It's up to us, the people, to vote for the guys who will run our government in a way that benefits us, the people. If your confident that corporations have your family's best interest and welfare as their number one concern, go ahead and vote for Romney. If you believe that the role of our elected officials is to work within the government to assure a brighter future for America and for Americans, go with Obama.