Politics

GOP doubles down on criticism during Obama’s bus tour

Amanda Carey Contributor
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The GOP continued to double down on its attacks on President Barack Obama’s bus tour Monday. In a conference call, Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus and Iowa GOP Chair Matt Strawn sharpened their criticism, calling the President’s Midwest swing an obvious “taxpayer-funded campaign tour.”

Priebus, especially, hammered Obama for campaigning for re-election while the country is experiencing a leadership vacuum. The RNC chairman even called Obama’s three-day trip a “fraud of a bus tour to spin his failure to put Americans back to work.” (RELATED: RNC dubs Obama’s Midwest trip the ‘Debt-End Bus Tour’ in new campaign)

“He can’t help himself,” said Priebus, after calling the President the “Campaigner in Chief.”

He also noted Obama’s proclivity to remind voters he inherited a bad economy from his predecessor, President George W. Bush.

“One thing this President did inherit,” said Priebus, “is a AAA credit rating.”

Strawn echoed the sharp criticism, saying that when Obama arrives in the town of Decorah later on Monday, he will “realize very quickly it isn’t Iowa of 2007 and 2008.”

“The President’s visit to Iowa has all the trapping of a campaign tour,” Strawn jabbed, adding that the tour has “everything to do with politics and nothing to do with policy.”

“Obama knows this is a state he must carry if he’s to win a second term,” Strawn warned.

In 2008, Iowa was the launching pad for Obama’s presidential ambitions. He trounced his Democratic rivals with a shocking win in the primary, then went on to solidly defeat Republican nominee John McCain there in the general election.