President Obama spoke to American business leaders at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, and said policymakers haven’t been aggressive enough in attracting businesses to American soil.
“We’ve been a little bit lazy, I think, over the last couple of decades,” Obama said about business outreach. “We’ve kind of taken for granted, well, people will want to come here and we aren’t out there hungry, selling America and trying to attract new businesses into America.”
If you’re thinking, even the most unhinged, right-wing Republican would support the president’s willingness to be more aggressive in bringing businesses to the United States, you’re wrong.
Mitt Romney, either because he’s not terribly bright or because he’s hoping voters aren’t terribly bright, launched a new attack based on Obama’s comments. As the Republican presidential candidate sees it, the president “said that Americans are lazy.” That’s not true, but Romney isn’t exactly fact-oriented. The former governor added that Obama says “disparaging things about Americans.”
As it turns out, there is a presidential candidate who’s argued that Americans “avoid the hard work” that’s needed for the country to get ahead. The candidate is Mitt Romney, who put the argument in his book:
“We have been accustomed to being the world’s leading nation for so long, enjoying the freedom, security, and prosperity that comes with that leadership, that we have tended to avoid the hard work that overcoming challenges requires.”
So, as Romney sees it, Americans have grown so complacent, we’ve become slothful.
The former governor said yesterday the president doesn’t “understand” Americans. It seems like Romney has this backwards.
