The Obama and Romney campaigns have shed any pretense that the Republican primary is still ongoing, and have fully engaged one another.
On Wednesday afternoon, President Obama's reelection campaign put out a web video that responded directly to Mitt Romney attacks which paint the president as seeking to create "a new government-centered society."
Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said in an e-mail release accompanying the video that the politician Romney described in his speech Tuesday night, after he won primaries in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington, D.C., "bears no resemblance to President Obama."
The video is notably defensive, in the sense that for each statement by Romney, it gives a rebuttal by Obama. The overall message: Obama is not against business or the private sector, but is instead for it.
It's a sign that not only is the Obama campaign done with waiting for Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul to drop out of the GOP primary, it also wants to prevent Obama from being defined in the eyes of swing voters as a big-government liberal.
Here's the video, and the script:
Mitt Romney: "The President has pledged to "transform America," and he has spent the last four years laying the foundation for a new Government-Centered Society."
President Obama: "I have never been somebody who believes that government can or should try to solve every problem."
Mitt Romney: "He saw free enterprise as the villain and not the solution."
President Obama: "I believe deeply that the free market is the greatest force for economic progress in human history."
Mitt Romney: "When you attack business and vilify success, you're going to have less business and less success."
President Obama: "I know that the true engine of job creation in this country is the private sector, not Washington."
Mitt Romney: "... tax increases become not only a necessity, but also a desired tool for social justice."
President Obama: "I've cut taxes for small business owners 17 times over the last three years."
Mitt Romney: "... government spending always increases because...well why not?"
President Obama: "As President I've eliminated dozens of programs that won't work. And put annual domestic spending on a path to become the smallest share of the economy since Dwight Eisenhower held this office."
Mitt Romney: "If we become one of those societies that attack success, one outcome is certain -- there will be a lot less success."
President Obama: "In this country broad based prosperity has never trickled down from the success of a wealthy few. It has always come from the success of a strong and growing middle class."
Mitt Romney: "We'll stop the days of apologizing for success at home and never again apologize for America abroad."
President Obama: "I have no doubt that we will continue our long and prosperous journey as the greatest nation on Earth. Thank you. God bless you. God bless the United States of America."