In a video interview with The Daily Caller, Republican Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell labeled President Barack Obama’s comment about Mitt Romney’s sizable pension during Tuesday’s presidential debate “a cheap shot.”
“Mr. President, have you looked at your pension?” Romney asked during the debate, as part of his response to Obama’s claim that Romney’s pension contains foreign investments.
Obama responded, “I don’t look at my pension. It’s not as big as yours, so it doesn’t take as long. I don’t check it that often.”
McDonnell also said he hasn’t heard “anything” from Obama in the debates about how the next four years will be different from the last four if he is re-elected.
TheDC asked McDonnell if he thinks Obama’s efforts to paint Romney as wealthy and out of touch are resonating with voters.
“No, I don’t, and if it did, this race wouldn’t be where it is today, where Mitt Romney’s leading by five points in the swing polls. I think it’s really too bad. It’s a class warfare argument. Four years ago, the president ran on hope and change, it was positive, it was uplifting, trying to unify the county. This is a very different campaign, it’s based on fear and division,” McDonnell said.
“Most Americans aspire to have material comforts and to be wealthy, so they can provide for their children, and yet the president continues to say things that really demean and look down on success, so I thought that was a little bit of a cheap shot.”
According to CNBC, Obama has earned substantial public pensions, from his time in the Illinois state legislature and the presidency. However, Romney’s private pension dwarfs even the president’s considerable public pensions.
Romney has no public pension from his single term as governor of Massachusetts.
“The big issue in the campaign really is who’s got the best vision for the next four years,” McDonnell said.
“I didn’t hear President Obama say anything that would lead the independent voters in Virginia to conclude that the next four years are going to be any different than the last four years, so we’ve got record debt, record unemployment, doubling of gas prices and really no energy plan.”
McDonnell said he thought the president’s answers on energy were “incredibly disingenuous.”
“My state’s getting battered by the Obama administration, the nuclear energy industry, coal jobs … natural gas,” he said.