Senior Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod defended on Tuesday his team's decision to unveil a pamphlet of President Obama's policy proposals two weeks before Election Day.
"Of course the pamphlet reflects the ideas that the president has advanced throughout this campaign about where we need to go as a country, building on the progress that we made ... it's the plan that he talked about at the convention, it's the plan that he talks about every day, but we wanted to codify it and put it in one place," said Axelrod on MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports."
Axelrod said the campaign wanted still-undecided voters to be able to look at the specific ideas that the president has offered, including proposals on education advancement, rebuilding manufacturing, balancing the federal budget and energy production.
He also used the opportunity to knock GOP rival Mitt Romney's five-point plan.
"What they'll find is a bunch of topic heads and nothing underneath, and what the plan really is, as the president said in the last debate, is a one-point plan: tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulate Wall Street, and it's the same plan that wrecked our economy in the first place," he said.
Obama announced the release of his plan for "jobs and middle-class security" during a grassroots event in Delray, Fla., and in a television ad released Tuesday. In the ad and on the campaign trail the president directed voters to his website to review what he said was a plan that "actually will move America forward."
"So for those of you who are still making up their minds or your friends or your families, I ask folks — compare my plan with Gov. Romney’s. See which plan is better for you and for America’s future," said Obama Tuesday.
Romney and his surrogates have aggressively accused the president of failing to lay out a second-term agenda.
"A glossy pamphlet two weeks before an election is no substitute for a real agenda for America. Instead of offering a plan to get our economy back on track and create new jobs, President Obama is offering more tax increases, more spending, more debt, and fewer jobs," said Romney campaign spokesperson Ryan Williams in a statement to The Hill.
"Mitt Romney has a real plan for a Real Recovery that will create 12 million new jobs with rising take-home pay, move us toward a balanced budget and create prosperity for all Americans."
Axelrod denied that the release of the agenda was a concession that the president had not yet offered enough specifics.
"It's just the kind of thing you do at the end of a campaign as people are making their final choices. You know most people have made their decisions ... but there are some who are still thinking it through, and we wanted to give them a summary of the argument that they can see and read and contemplate as they make those final decisions," Axelrod said.
