enthusiastic crowd greets President at Convention Center
President Obama delivered a full throated defense of his Administration, and he told an enthusiastic audience of more than a thousand supporters at the San Antonio Convention Center that the plans Republicans have wouldn't work.
"My general rule is, if I do something and it doesn't work, I don't go back to doing it," the President said. "We don't go backwards, we go forwards."
The President referred to likely Republican nominee Mitt Romney by name several times as he blasted Romney's proposals.
"My opponent thought it was a good idea to let Detroit go bankrupt," the President said. "I disagreed. I wanted to make a bet on America's workers, and American industry and American manufacturing. Three and a half years later, the American auto industry is back, GM is number one, and Ford and Chrysler are selling cars."
The President told the San Antonio audience that the 'basic bargain' of America as decayed over the past decade. He said the idea that any American can climb into the middle class, that they will always be able to find a job that supported a family, has deteriorated over ten years of Republican economic policies and deregulation.
"We spent almost a decade doing what they prescribed," he said. "And how did it turn out?"
The crowd at the Convention Center chanted 'four more years!'
"The times have been tough, but the American people have been tougher," the President declared.
He cited the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the end of the War in Iraq, the killing of Osama bin Laden, and the end of the 'don’t ask don't tell' policy covering gays and Lesbians in the military as examples of promises he made in 2008 that have been fulfilled.
The President said Republicans are focused on providing tax cuts to the richest Americans, regardless of the cost.
"Even if it means gutting education investments. Even if it means slashing transportation. Even if it means we are not able to take care of our veterans as effectively. Even if it means we are not investing in basic science and research, they still believe that those tax cuts that benefit folks at the top will end up in making everybody better off. That's their program," he said. "It's not complicated."
