Republican candidates seeking the US presidency have spent months pitching glossy versions of themselves to voters, but as they entered two events in Florida yesterday they wanted to make sure that voters knew the full story about their rivals’ records.
Ahead of an afternoon candidate forum and an evening debate in the swing state, advisers telegraphed the criticism that each campaign was likely to use. As most of the candidates were planning a two-day trip to the hard-fought state, they were also ramping up their rhetoric against each other to discount their rivals’ accomplishments.
With five months remaining until the first nominating contests, time is running short for some of the candidates trying to break free of the pack. Their camps descended on senior citizen-rich Florida this week, ready with lines sharpened for fellow Republicans more than their once-favorite target, US President Barack Obama.
“I’ve forgotten more about Israel than Rick Perry knows about Israel,” former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum told reporters in Washington, trying to rap his rival’s foreign policy speech.
Texas added jobs during the economic recession under Governor Rick Perry’s leadership, he said, but unemployment went up last month and is at its highest level since 1987, rival Mitt Romney said.
Romney filled in Massachusetts’ US$3 billion budget hole without raising taxes as governor, yet the state trailed 46 others in job creation, Perry shot back.
Perry’s campaign did not address Romney’s questions and instead Ray Sullivan, its chief spokesman, swiped at a rival who “seems to forget he’s a Republican.”
With Romney and Perry elbowing each other for front-runner status — while conservative, Tea Party darling Michele Bachmann tries to wedge herself into the top tier — the presidential contenders scheduled a forum on their faith and a head-to-head debate for yesterday.
They are also scheduled to make appearances at a conservative conference today and some are expected to visit a nonbinding test vote of the party faithful tomorrow.
An independent pro-Bachmann group was ready to start airing advertisements in Iowa aimed at Perry.
The ad follows Bachmann’s criticism of Perry’s record in Texas and echoes conservatives’ criticism of vaccines he mandated and Ron Paul of Texas, a favorite of the party’s libertarian wing, renewed his criticism of Perry as a typical politician.
“He knows what people are thinking about, that’s how politicians operate,” Paul told reporters on Wednesday before heading to Florida.
Also set to join the debate: Georgia businessman Herman Cain, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, former Utah governor Jon Huntsman and former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson.
However, the key rivalry to watch is between Perry and Romney, a pair of political front-runners who have already let the criticism fly.
A Romney spokeswoman called Perry “a career politician.” A Perry aide shot back that Romney has been campaigning full time for nearly five years.
Romney has spent years building an organization and has aggressively worked to raise money. Perry, who entered the campaign just last month, quickly jumped to the lead in national polls.
During their last debate, the two directly confronted each other on their records and the questions become more pointed in the days following.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
Thailand has netted more than 1.3 million kilograms of highly destructive blackchin tilapia fish, the government said yesterday, as it battles to stamp out the invasive species. Shoals of blackchin tilapia, which can produce up to 500 young at a time, have been found in 19 provinces, damaging ecosystems in rivers, swamps and canals by preying on small fish, shrimp and snail larvae. As well as the ecological impact, the government is worried about the effect on the kingdom’s crucial fish-farming industry. Fishing authorities caught 1,332,000kg of blackchin tilapia from February to Wednesday last week, said Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat, vice president of a parliamentary
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