Thune mocks Obama rhetoric, campaign push instead of focus on job creation

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) needled President Obama’s campaigning on
behalf of Democrats in the Republican weekly radio address, mocking the
president on his campaign rhetoric.

Thune, a member of the
Senate GOP leadership who may challenge Obama in the 2012 presidential
election, posed the quintessential question for a party trying to
unseat incumbents.

{mosads}”I would like to suggest a simple question people should ask
themselves to help cut through all the talk: Are you better off today
than you were two years ago?” Thune said Saturday.

Thune sought
to undercut Obama’s message on the campaign trail in the closing days
of the campaign, focusing on the job losses Democrats have suffered
over the past two years. He asserted that the president should be more
focused on job creation than on re-electing Democrats.

“But if the conversations I’ve had with voters are any indication,
the president should spend less time campaigning to save the jobs of
Democrats in Congress, and more time trying to create jobs for the
American people,” he said. “The Obama Experiment has failed.”

Republicans are looking to keep the election focused on jobs and
the economy before voters head to the polls on Nov. 2. Thune, a top
Republican figure, focused on the GOP alternatives the party has
proposed to legislation favored by Democrats and the president.

He also mocked a frequent refrain from Obama on the campaign trail,
in which the president says that people put a car in “D” to “drive
forward” symbolize “Democrats,” versus when drivers put a car in “R” to
“reverse” to symbolize “Republicans.”

“The president likes to say that when you want to drive forward you
put your car in D, and when you want to go in reverse you put it in R,”
Thune said. “It’s a clever line, but when you’re speeding toward a
cliff, you don’t want to keep the car in drive.”