Campaign 2012

VP Hopefuls Already Under Attack

Obama campaign critiques them in emails to supporters.

Mitt Romney has yet to announce his vice presidential pick, but the Obama campaign is already issuing pre-emptive strikes against many of the hopefuls. In emails to supporters, the campaign wrote that Rob Portman “is one of the architects of the top-down Bush budget,” Tim Pawlenty’s record “is painful for the middle-class families who lived under his leadership,” and Marco Rubio “has led the way on almost every extreme position Mitt Romney has embraced.” A Romney campaign spokesman said the critiques are simply “negative smear campaigns against the possible GOP vice presidential nominees.” While a Portman confidante called the tactic “desperate.”