Elections

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell: Obama is no Clinton

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell hammered President Barack Obama and his delegates as liberal extremists Thursday afternoon, comparing them unfavorably with former president Bill Clinton, who served as the president’s prime-time advocate the Wednesday evening.

McDonnell spoke Thursday afternoon in the basement of the NASCAR Hall of Fame during the fourth day of the Republicans’ response to the Democratic National Convention. He told reporters that Clinton’s speech was a reversal from his views on Obama just four years ago.

“President Clinton gave a great speech, but he had to have a real hard time giving that speech,” the Virginia governor said. “It’s a very different Bill Clinton than he was four years ago, when he essentially said that this man, President Obama, is not competent to be President of the United States.”

According to McDonnell, Obama’s Democratic Party is completely different from Clinton’s, and from previous Democratic administrations — especially considering the recent drama over the party’s 2012 convention platform.

“This administration is not the same party; they have not the same philosophy of President Bill Clinton. This is the most liberal president in the history of the United States and this is the most liberal group of delegates, I think, that have ever attended a National convention — if you look at the platform, if you look at what they had to do on the floor last night in an embarrassing moment to actually have a divided vote on whether they believed in God, and in fact whether Jerusalem was the capital of Israel.”

The Mitt Romney surrogate went on to highlight the stark differences between the eight popular Clinton years and the Obama administration’s first three, focusing largely on Clinton’s ability to compromise and move toward the political center for pragmatic ends.

“Bill Clinton was a fundamentally different type of president than Barack Obama. Bill Clinton actually worked with Republicans, with Speaker Gingrich, to enact the Contract with America, to pass welfare reform, to balance the budget, to be able to actually create a surplus for the first time in decades — because he moved to the center.”

Instead, McDonnell contended, under Obama politics have been divisive and petty with practical issues making way for distractions and ideological pressures.

“This is the most divisive campaign in modern American politics,” McDonnell said. The Democrats’ campaign, he added, is focused on “small ball” concerns like Romney’s tax returns and social issues, not weighty issues like the nation’s economy.

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