Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter on Sunday dismissed the Des Moines Register endorsement of GOP candidate Mitt Romney, saying it was not “based at all in reality.”
“They endorsed Mitt Romney in the primary, so this was not much of a surprise,” said Cutter on ABC’s “This Week” of the influential swing-state paper’s backing for President Obama’s challenger.
“It was a little surprising to read that editorial, because it didn't seem to be based at all in reality, not just in the president's record, but in Mitt Romney's record,” Cutter added. “It says that he'd reach across the aisle, which he'd do the exact opposite. It's the exact opposite of what he did in Massachusetts.”
Romney on late Saturday received the endorsement of the Des Moines Register, Iowa’s largest newspaper.
The paper which had backed Obama in 2008 and not endorsed a Republican nominee in 40 years said Romney would be better at building bipartisan compromises in Washington.
The endorsement will likely bolster Romney’s efforts to win the state’s six electoral votes. Recent polling has shown the two candidates locked in a tight race in the state.
Cutter on Sunday said the Register was wrong to paint Romney as a centrist who would work with Democrats.
“Over the course of running for president over this last six years, he's never once stood up to the far extreme right wing,” she said, citing the controversy over Indiana GOP Senate candidate Richard Mourdock’s recent comments on abortion and rape. “Just this past week we saw it, when he wouldn't take down his ad for Richard Mourdock, who had -- you know, it's a now famous comment that it's God's will if a woman gets pregnant through rape. He's not willing to stand up when it matters.”
Cutter also touted the administration’s many endorsement from other newspapers and said the campaign felt “good” about their position in the closing days of the race.
“There is momentum. There is movement out there with people wanting a second term of an Obama presidency. We feel good about where we are,” she said.
The Register endorsement for Romney also came days after the editorial board criticized the president for speaking with them of the record. The Obama campaign later released a transcript of the conversation with the paper.
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