National Democratic Strategist Robert Weiner Asserts Presidential Debate Moderators Only Ask R's Policy Differences from Each Other and Fail to Contrast to Obama Successes in Foreign and Domestic Policy

WEINER SAYS TO 20-NETWORK "RADIO ROW," DEMS MUST FIGHT BACK WITH SIMPLE MESSAGE TO DIFFERENTIATE FROM R'S—GET OUT OF AFGHANISTAN, STAY OUT OF IRAQ, GOV'T OUT OF YOUR BEDROOM, NO MORE TAX BREAKS FOR MILLIONAIRES AT EXPENSE OF HEALTH CARE, SENIORS AND ECONOMY

WASHINGTON, Jan. 20, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- National Democratic strategist Bob Weiner today lashed out at the Presidential television debate moderators who, Weiner said, "only ask the Republican candidates their differences from each other and are failing to ask how the candidates would differ from President Obama's successes in foreign and domestic policy.  At the Families USA 20-network "Radio Row," Weiner said, "The moderators have been failing to ask if the Republicans have any real alternative that would have succeeded as Obama did in taking down Osama bin Laden, Anwar al-Awlaki, or Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, reversed the Bush bleeding of 750,000 jobs per month, rescued the auto industry and the nation's financial institutions, and put the country back to 22 straight months of increased jobs and improving GDP."

Weiner continued, "The debate moderators have failed to ask the Republican candidates if they support their party in the Senate in its record filibusters, and the House agenda of rich tax cuts and removing oversight of big business. Don't those policies explain the horrific 9-13% congressional approval rates in the polls? Why are the moderators not asking why the Republicans simply obstruct the national agenda and myriad jobs bills that would have otherwise passed, how the leading Presidential candidate could demand to 'Let Detroit go bankrupt,' to let housing foreclosures 'hit bottom,' why they would all give rich millionaires and billionaires even more rich tax breaks when the record shows better success with tax cuts targeted to the middle, what they would do about income disparity which allowed the top 1% in America to increase their income 18 times more than the rest of the country over the last 30 years, and what they would do about GAO's report that tax policy favoring the rich has helped cause the income disparity and the highest poverty numbers since the Great Depression?"

Concerning health care, Weiner, a former Chief of Staff of both the House Aging Committee and the Health Subcommittee before his other senior congressional and White House spokesman positions, contended, "The debate moderators have just allowed the candidates to say they would 'repeal Obama Care' and never asked them what they would do about the 2 1/5 million children now receiving care on their parent's plans, the fact that half of Americans have pre-existing conditions now covered, that 47 million Seniors now are having more of their life-saving drugs covered under the Affordable care act with a disappearing 'donut hole,' the fact that preventive medicine is now covered and preventing serious illnesses, that people are for the first time covered for life, and that without the Affordable Act there will be 30 million people without health insurance which all the studies (most recently Harvard) say would die sooner. Just give all that away when we finally match what every other civilized nation offers its citizens?"

Weiner said that, "Because of the Republicans' domination of the message with their debate Obama-bashing with no challenges to his successes, Democrats must fight back with a simple message to differentiate from Republicans:  Get out of Afghanistan, stay out of Iraq, get government out of your bedroom, and no more tax breaks for millionaires at the expense of vital health care, seniors' Medicare and Social Security, the economy, and reducing our national debt. In sum, Democrats must say, working to obstruct positive achievements is not a policy the country should tolerate."

Weiner said that "recent comments by CBC Chair, Cong. Emanuel Cleaver (MO) that we are now facing 'pathological partisanship,' and by Democratic Governors' Chair Martin O'Malley that the presidential candidates and House and Senate Republicans are offering 'make-believe economics' with their rich-tax-cuts work myth, are spot on. Bill Clinton's new book, Back to Work, encapsulates the point of a 'Thirty-Year Antigovernment Obsession.' National Democratic Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz rightly asks, 'Are we better off now than we were three years ago?' when at the end of the Bush administration, we were bleeding 750,000 jobs a month and faced the greatest financial crash since the Depression, versus 22 straight months of job growth under President Obama and counting and the auto industry and American manufacturing saved as well as our financial institutions." 

Weiner added, "This is quite the contrast to what Gov. Romney proposed, his Wall Street Journal Oped, 'Let Detroit Go Bankrupt,' and then he recently doubled down by saying 'Don't try to stop the foreclosure process.  Let it hit the bottom' and only then be bought out—applying his Bain Capital vulturism to millions of Americans who are hurting and would lose their homes.  That's what happens when you think and express the view that 'Corporations are people,' he 'likes firing people,' and $300 K is 'not much.'  Romney's proposal to cut rich taxes would cut his own meager 15% he admits he gets away with even more – some say by half -- and all the Republican candidates sing the same tune on the issue."

"Meanwhile, Gingrich, the wife swapper and ethics-removed former Speaker, would create the Party of the Child Janitor," Weiner concluded, only somewhat in jest.

Contact: Bob Weiner/Richard Mann 301-283-0821 or 202-306-1200

SOURCE Robert Weiner Associates