President Barack Obama's re-election campaign staff gave a rundown of the state of the presidential race on Friday, criticizing Republican candidate Mitt Romney's convention speech and giving a preview of their own convention next week.
"The goal of our convention is to bring the choice in this election into sharp focus," Obama for America deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter told reporters in a "State of the Race" call on Friday.
Unlike Romney, "we don't need to reintroduce the president or reinvent him," Cutter added.
Senior strategist David Axelrod also said Romney botched his only real opportunity to speak directly to the American people.
"What they got instead were some snarky lines about the president, some gauzy reminisces about the past," Axelrod said, adding it was "the republican party talking to itself."
Both Cutter and Axelrod focused for much the call on what Romney did not mention in his speech last night, namely his time as Massachusetts governor, his views on Medicare and his plans to cut taxes to corporations and the nation's wealthiest citizens.
"There's a reason why they left out the detail in a three-day convention in Tampa," Cutter said, claiming any mention of Romney and running mate Paul Ryan's actual views on these issues would amount to "political suicide."
The call came the same day the Obama campaign issued a new campaign video highlighting "What Mitt Romney Didn't Say" in his campaign speech last night.
The video, which also focused on Romney not mentioning his tax cut and Medicare policies, also said the former governor did not mention his budget plans, which would cut Pell grants and K-12 education, and his plans to cut clean energy investment.
"And at a time when 84,000 American men and women are fighting for their country in Afghanistan, not a single mention of how - or when - to bring them home safely," the ad voice-over added.
"When you learn about the Romney plan, is it any wonder he doesn't have much to say?" the ad concluded.
But Friday's call didn't solely focus on the Romney speech. Cutter and Axelrod also gave a preview of what would be discussed at the Democratic convention next week.
"Next week in Charlotte, we are eager to talk about where we've been and where we're going," Axelrod said, adding, "We're most looking forward to talking about where we go from here."
"This president is committed by experience, by belief, and whole-heartedly to rebuilding the economy," Axelrod added at the end of the call.
The Democratic National Convention will take place September 4-6, 2012 at the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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