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politics and politicians Title: Refusing to Apologize, Obama Renews Attacks on Romney’s Business Record GLEN ALLEN, Va. — President Obama refused to apologize to Mitt Romney on Saturday, barnstorming through this swing state as his aides continued their attacks by releasing a new television ad that mockingly shows Mr. Romney singing “America the Beautiful.” Mr. Obama, speaking to a drenched crowd during a downpour in this Richmond suburb, accused Mr. Romney of investing in “companies that have been called pioneers in outsourcing.” He ignored the demands for an apology about the campaign’s tone that Mr. Romney had called for in interviews on Friday. “My opponent and his allies in Congress, they believe in top-down economics,” Mr. Obama said. “If you cut through all the stuff, what they are really saying is tax cuts for the wealthy, roll back regulations. That is essentially their plan.” The president’s campaign has spent more than a week hammering Mr. Romney’s personal wealth and calling on him to disclose information about his personal finances by releasing more years of his tax returns. They have also raised questions about Mr. Romney’s offshore investments and accounts. The new ad reminds viewers of those issues as it shows a clip of Mr. Romney singing at a campaign event in Florida this year. It says Mr. Romney shipped jobs to Mexico, China and India — accusations that Mr. Romney’s campaign vehemently denies. And it notes that Mr. Romney had “millions” in a Swiss bank account and “tax havens” in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. “Mitt Romney’s not the solution,” the ad states. “He’s the problem.” On Saturday, the Republican campaign repeated Mr. Romney’s angry comments about what they said are untrue allegations surrounding Mr. Romney’s personal finances. “As the failures of his presidency become more evident, Barack Obama has resorted to the tactics of a typical politician: dishonest and totally unsubstantiated attacks meant to distract from his own record by smearing the reputation of his opponent,” said Amanda Hennenberg, a Romney campaign spokeswoman. Mr. Romney’s campaign has repeatedly defended the offshore accounts, saying that he paid all the taxes legally required. On Friday, Mr. Romney again refused to release multiple years of his tax returns. He has released a return for 2010, and an estimate for 2011. “I know there will always be calls for more. People always want to get more,” Mr. Romney said on CNN. “And, you know, we’re putting out what is required plus more that is not required. And those are the two years that people are going to have. And that’s — that’s all that’s necessary for people to understand something about my finances.” But if Mr. Romney’s campaign hoped that his rival’s campaign would back off its aggressive tone, they were disappointed. Traveling with the president on Air Force One, Mr. Obama’s top aides went out of their way Saturday morning to highlight their continued attacks. In addition to the television ad, Mr. Obama’s campaign released a Web video compilation of attacks that Mr. Romney has made in the past. The point, they said, is that Mr. Romney is equally responsible for the campaign’s tone. “Mitt Romney, I just want to remind you, is the same candidate who questioned whether the president understood America, questioned whether he understood freedom,” said Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for the Obama campaign. “He spends a lot of time attacking.” The video, titled “Asking for Apologies While Launching Attacks,” shows Mr. Romney raising the issue of Mr. Obama’s ties to the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. and shows him accusing the president of “appeasement” in his foreign policy. “This president spends a lot of time apologizing for America,” the video shows Mr. Romney saying. “He should be apologizing to America.” The video concludes by saying: “Mitt Romney. He sure asks for a lot of apologies. When he’s not busy launching attacks.” On Saturday, Mr. Obama was on the stump in Virginia for a second day. Throughout most of his speech, a soaked Mr. Obama avoided the down-and-dirty political combat that has consumed much of the campaign coverage. “Even though the crisis put us through some very tough times, the American people are tougher,” Mr. Obama said. “Folks may have gotten knocked down some, but they got back up.” But the second half of Mr. Obama’s stump speech is tougher. He quoted Mr. Romney as “saying let Detroit go bankrupt” and accused Republicans of giving tax breaks to companies that send work overseas. He concluded with a fiery defense of his health care bill. “The Supreme Court has spoken. It is the law of the land. We are going to implement it,” he said. “It was the right thing to do. We’re not going backwards, we are going forward.”
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