The Republican National Committee is trying to give Democrats a taste of their own medicine, arguing that it's President Obama — not Mitt Romney — who is "the real outsourcer-in-chief." Team Obama has slammed the president's Republican rival for being a "pioneer" in outsourcing American jobs to low-wage countries during his years at private equity firm Bain Capital. But now, the GOP has set up a website, ObamanomicsOutsourced.com (see a teaser video below), that insists that it's actually Obama who shipped jobs overseas by spending taxpayer dollars abroad instead of putting the money to use at home. (The Obama campaign disputes those attacks, saying "we understand that the Romney campaign wants us to share in their outsourcing misery, but the record doesn't support their attacks.") Does the GOP have a point?
Yes. This is a smart political move: After watching Team Obama's "lame attacks" on Romney, "I'm glad the RNC is fighting back," says Erika Johnsen at Hot Air. The GOP's website probably won't sway a whole lot of independent voters, but it's a "pretty handy-dandy tool for tracing the many cases in which our 'stimulus' dollars went overseas." It's also a good way to counter the Democratic hit job on Romney for having made sound, legal business decisions.
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No way. This GOP attack is pathetic: Obama's Bain attacks are resonating with voters, says Benjy Sarlin at Talking Points Memo, so Republicans want to cloud the issue by accusing Obama of "doing the exact same thing." The trouble is, Bain really did invest in companies that sent jobs overseas; Obama's stimulus bill, on the other hand, "specifically included provisions requiring funding go to American jobs." Romney needs to fight back, but saying "no, you're the outsourcer-in-chief" won't cut it.
"Romney applies patented 'rubber/glue' strategy to Bain outsourcing"
Obama is vulnerable, just not for the reasons the RNC says: The GOP isn't the only one criticizing Obama's record on sending jobs abroad, say Tom Hamburger, Carol D. Leonnig, and Zachary A. Goldfarb at The Washington Post. Detractors on the Left have slammed him for failing to call out China for deflating the value of its currency so it can sell goods cheaper and steal U.S. manufacturing jobs. The way liberal critics see it, Obama is "embracing unfettered trade despite its costs to American workers."
"Obama’s record on outsourcing draws criticism from the left"
Take a look at the GOP's teaser for its "outsourcer-in-chief" campaign:
Read more political coverage at The Week's 2012 Election Center.