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President Barack Obama's campaign adviser Robert Gibbs said the president could "absolutely" be re-elected despite high unemployment and a struggling housing market Thursday morning in an appearance on NBC's "Today."
Gibbs, who formerly served as the president's press secretary, said the president could win in a tough economic climate. "Absolutely. Because I think what's going on in this country with frustration around income, and quite frankly frustration around Wall Street. Look at what every one of the Republican candidates wants to roll back: Wall Street reform," he said. "Barack Obama, on the other hand, is out fighting for the middle class and making sure we can send our children to college. I think that's a pretty good contrast, even in a bad economy."
Gibbs, like Obama's chief campaign strategist David Axelrod, portrayed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as someone who changes positions for political expediency. "I think Mitt Romney has had an extraordinarily difficult week, and he has very much defined exactly what I think most people think of Mitt Romney in the six years they've seen him on the national stage, and that is he takes a position one day and wait a couple days and he'll probably take a different one."
Romney Wednesday said he supported "110 percent" Ohio's Issue 2, a ballot question that would uphold a law rolling back collective bargaining rights for public employees, after declining to take a position Tuesday.
Gibbs called former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain a "surprising entry" in the Republican field, but said he and the other Republican candidates offer "a mix of more tax cuts for the wealthy and letting Wall Street write the rules."
