Obama Campaign Romney on Record as Governor
BORGER: After pounding away at Mitt Romney's record as a business leader, the Obama campaign is now targeting his term as governor of Massachusetts. The Democrats took their attack to Romney's backyard today, but they ran into some Republican resistance. CNN chief White House correspondent Jessica Yellin is here with us. Yes, they did run into some resistance.</s>JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: They did, Gloria. You might call it a noisy rollout, complete with dueling news conferences and rowdy protesters. When the Obama campaign turned up in Boston and they took aim at Romney's record as governor and a job creator.</s>YELLIN (voice-over): Next time the opposition visits the Romney campaign's home turf they might want to rally at an indoor location.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Repeated, it was great to be in the city of Springfield.</s>YELLIN: Those are Romney supporters blowing bubbles on the sidelines and trying to drown out the Obama campaign's message.</s>DAVID AXELROD, OBAMA SENIOR CAMPAIGN ADVISER: You can shout down speakers, my friends, but it's hard to etch a sketch the truth away.</s>YELLIN: That's the Obama campaign's top strategist, David Axelrod, opening a second front in the war on Romney's economic record. First, the argument that Romney's time at Bain does not make him an economic guru.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It brought the orientation of a financial engineer, whose career has not been about generating jobs, it's been about generating short-term profit.</s>YELLIN: Now he's making the case that Romney's record in Massachusetts proves it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it wasn't happenstance, folks that Massachusetts stumbled under Governor Romney.</s>YELLIN: This Obama campaign video argues Romney's message hasn't changed from 2002 --</s>MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE 2002: I know how jobs are created and how jobs are lost.</s>YELLIN: To now.</s>ROMNEY 2011: I know why jobs come and why they go.</s>YELLIN: And it insists the former governor did not deliver in Massachusetts.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE, POLITICAL AD: By the time that Romney left office, we were 47th in the nation in terms of job growth.</s>YELLIN: The fact checking organization, PolitiFact, says the claim is accurate, but Massachusetts' sluggish growth was not all Romney's fault.</s>AARON SHAROCKMAN, POLITIFACT: Massachusetts made a gamble on high-tech, and those jobs went away in the late '90s, early 2000's, and Mitt Romney had to kind of -- and the others in the legislature and the state had to kind of find jobs to fill that vacuum.</s>YELLIN: At a dueling press conference, Romney supporters defended his record.</s>DAN WINSLOW, MASSACHUSETTS STATE HOUSE: That under Governor Romney, Massachusetts created more net new jobs in the state than President Obama has created in the last four years, in the last four years of the United States.</s>YELLIN: Polling in Massachusetts shows the former governor trailing the president by 25 points.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He also promised to --</s>UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Broken record!</s>YELLIN: A point the campaign made over the din.</s>AXELROD: These may be the only voters, right here, for Mitt Romney in Massachusetts.</s>YELLIN: It was a rowdy scene. Now, the point of the Obama campaign showing up there was try to convince voters that Romney's record at Bain and at private equity does not prepare -- did not prepare him to be governor and similarly does not prepare him to turn around the nation's economy. And Gloria, you can also expect them to take on Mitt Romney's record at the Olympics as well and to keep up attacks on all three fronts through the elections.</s>BORGER: It seems to be kind of a rollout. First they start with Bain, then they go to Massachusetts, then they'll go to the Olympics and --</s>YELLIN: They'll keep it all up. It's all part of a package and a piece.</s>BORGER: Romney economics, as they call it.</s>YELLIN: Yes.</s>BORGER: Thanks a lot, Jessica. And banning super sized sodas in the "Big Apple"? Is that a good idea or is it just too much government? Mayor Michael Bloomberg fires back at critics in three minutes. Plus, you probably heard a lot of stories that start with some guy sitting in a bar, but not like this one.