Romney to Obama: take your ‘hate’ back to Chicago

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio: A furious Mitt Romney lashed out at President Barack Obama on Tuesday for reckless campaign accusations and stoking partisan division, demanding he take his “hate” back to Chicago.
The Republican White House hopeful pointed to what he called the latest “wild and reckless accusation” by the Obama team: an eyebrow-raising remark by Vice President Joe Biden that had uncomfortable racial overtones.
Biden was campaigning in Virginia, a one-time slave state, when he hit out at Romney’s policies for the finance industry.
“In the first hundred days (Romney’s) going to let the big banks once again write their own rules, unchain Wall Street,” Biden said.
“They’re going to put y’all back in chains.”
The Romney campaign immediately accused Obama of stooping to new lows, with Romney himself offering a fierce retort as he wound down a four-day bus tour across battleground states that will be key in November’s election.
“Another outrageous charge came a few hours ago in Virginia,” Romney told several thousand supporters in Chillicothe, Ohio, according to excerpts released by the campaign.
“This is what an angry and desperate presidency looks like,” he said.
“Over the last four years, this president has pushed Republicans and Democrats as far apart as they can go.... His campaign strategy is to smash America apart and then cobble together 51 percent of the pieces.”
But he said Americans, who have “lived and died under a single flag fighting for a single purpose,” deserve better.
“So Mr.President, take your campaign of division and anger and hate back to Chicago and let us get about rebuilding and reuniting America.”
Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt responded to Romney’s sharp attack by implicitly questioning the Republican’s leadership temperament.
“Governor Romney’s comments tonight seemed unhinged and particularly strange coming at a time when he’s pouring tens of millions of dollars into negative ads that are demonstrably false,” LaBolt said.
The Obama and Romney teams have ratcheted up the negativity in the past month, with both sides releasing harsh attack ads, and the candidates themselves turning bitterly personal in their criticism.
Obama has hit Romney hard on his business record and questioned the multimillionaire former investor’s business ethics, while Romney has questioned the president’s patriotism and said his economic philosophy is “foreign to the American experience.”