DEMOCRATS SKEWER ROMNEY AT PARTY CONVENTION BLITZ
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina, Sept 5, 2012 (AFP) - Democrats assailed Mitt Romney on the opening night of their convention on Tuesday, skewering the wealthy Republican presidential hopeful as elite and out-of-touch.
In a rowdy start to three days of political theater in Charlotte, North Carolina, speaker after speaker hammered the multi-millionaire businessman as a ruthless corporate raider with little interest in helping ordinary Americans while hailing President Barack Obama as a champion of the middle class.
The headline act was First Lady Michelle Obama, who didn't mention Romney by name but contrasted her husband's hard-scrabble journey with the more cosseted upbringing of his privileged rival.
Others were more blunt, like ris-
National polls put the rivals neck-and-neck, but a closer inspection of swing states reveals that Romney has his work cut out, especially as the bounce he was hoping for from last week's Republican convention failed to materialize
ing Hispanic star Julian Castro, who claimed “Mitt Romney, quite simply, doesn't get it” as he mocked the candidate's suggestion that aspiring entrepreneurs could borrow money from their parents.
Critics even emerged from beyond the grave, with a video tribute to the late Democratic icon Ted Kennedy carefully crafted to show him annihilating Romney during a one- on-one debate from the 1994 Massachusetts Senate race.
“I am pro-choice, my opponent is multiple choice,” Kennedy famously jibed, exposing Romney's shifting convictions after his opponent flipflopped on the hot-button issue of abortion.
In less than nine weeks, Americans must decide if the country's first black president should serve another four-year term or if Romney should take over.
National polls put the rivals neckand-neck, but a closer inspection of swing states reveals that Romney has his work cut out, especially as the bounce he was hoping for from last week's Republican convention failed to materialize.