US President Barack Obama set an aggressive tone on Friday accusing his rival Mitt Romney of suffering from policy “Romnesia,” a barb dismissed by the Republican as pettiness 18 days before the election.
One night earlier, both men had traded light-hearted banter at a charity dinner, but on Friday the verbal attacks turned nasty, with the Democratic incumbent taunting Romney’s efforts to tack to the centre as polling day looms.
“Mr. Severely Conservative wants you to think he was severely kidding about everything he said over the last year,” Obama said at a rally attended by some 9,000 people at a university campus outside Washington.
The Obama camp’s previous bid to skewer Romney with insulting tags – such as pushing the Robin-Hood-in-reverse term “Romney Hood” to tarnish his tax policies – have done nothing to protect the president’s shrinking poll lead.
But, with the pair’s last of three head-to-head debates set for Monday, the campaign returned to its tried and tested formula of branding Romney an untrustworthy flip-flopper.
“I mean, he’s changing up so much and backtracking and sidestepping, we’ve got to name this condition that he’s going through. I think it’s called ‘Romnesia.’ That’s what it’s called,” Obama told the crowd.
