Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is seeking to divert attention from a viral video that leaked this week by directing your attention to ... another viral video that leaked this week. Give it up for the Internet!
In damage control mode after a video from a private May fundraiser showed Romney saying 47 percent of voters are entitled and reliant on government handouts, he pointed to a 1998 clip of President Obama saying he believes in redistribution.
"The president's view is one of larger government, there's a tape that came out today where the president's saying he likes redistribution," he told Fox News.
"I disagree. I think a society based upon a nation where government plays a larger and larger role, redistributes money, that's the wrong course for America."
The audio file was first posted on The Drudge Report, a conservative site run by Matt Drudge, a close friend of Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades.
Romney used the audio to try and paint Obama as the head of a government taking "from some" to "give to the others," an "entirely foreign concept."
"I know there's a divide in the country," Romney added. "I know that some believe that government should take from some and give to the others. I think the president makes it clear in the tape that was released today that that's what he believes."
Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt fired back:
"The Romney campaign is so desperate to change the subject that they've gone back to the failed playbook co-authored by Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber."
"Fourteen years ago, then-Senator Obama was making an argument for a more efficient, more effective government - specifically citing city government agencies that he didn't think were working effectively. He believed then, and believes now, that there are steps we can take to promote opportunity and ensure that all Americans have a fair shot if they work hard."
"Unlike Governor Romney, President Obama doesn't believe that if you're a student who applies for a loan you're looking for a handout."
Romney stood by the comments in the leaked video, and it appears Obama is doing the same (subtly noting that his was from 1998, not 2012).
It remains to be seen whether either is any sort of game changer in a tight, contentious election certain to go down to the wire November 6.
U.S. Presidential Election 2012:
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