USA: Republican candidates for president Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich continue to campaign throughout Florida, with Romney attacking President Barack Obama for being in 'Fantasy Land' during his State of the Union speech

Record ID: 347873

  • Title: USA: Republican candidates for president Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich continue to campaign throughout Florida, with Romney attacking President Barack Obama for being in 'Fantasy Land' during his State of the Union speech
  • Date: 26th January 2012
  • Summary: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (JANUARY 24, 2012) (UNRESTRICTED POOL) U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA AT PODIUM MEMBERS OF CONGRESS APPLAUD IN THE CHAMBER OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA CLAPPING OBAMA SMILING
  • Embargoed: 10th February 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa, Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAESQANI6KZP81EW4EYSTYP3UQL
  • Story Text: Speaking at a metal manufacturing plant in Orlando on Wednesday (January 25), Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney criticized U.S. President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech delivered a night earlier, saying Obama was in "Fantasy Land."
    "He seemed so extraordinarily detached from reality, detached from what is going on in Florida. I mean he came to Fantasy Land but apparently did not spend much time in the communities around Fantasy Land and around this state," Romney said.
    Referring to a trip to Disney World's Fantasy Land the president made last week, Romney claimed Obama did not understand the problems of Floridians, saying they faced a 9.9 unemployment rate.
    "He said last night how well things are going. If you really think that things are going well in this country, that we are on the right track and that his policies are working, you ought to vote for him. But, I think on that basis, if we ask the American people if they think things are going well or not so well and he wants to get the votes of those who think it's going well, he is not going to be president very long," the former Massachusetts governor said.
    Romney continues to campaign across the "Sunshine State" ahead of Florida's primary on January 31.
    Meanwhile, fresh from his decided victory in the South Carolina primary over Romney, Republican candidate Newt Gingrich sat down with Univision journalist Jorge Ramos at Miami Dade College.
    Gingrich took the opportunity to attack Romney on immigration -- who had said he favored "self-deportation" of illegal immigrants during Monday's (January 23) Republican debate.
    "You have to live in a world of Swiss bank accounts and Cayman Island accounts and automatically $20 million dollars a year with no work to have some fantasy this far from reality. I talk very specifically about people who have been here a long time who are grandfathers and grandmothers, who have been paying their bills, they have been working as part of the community," he said.
    Gingrich said his immigration policy had remained consistent, including a guest-worker program.
    Ramos questioned Gingrich regarding his divorces in light of the former House Speaker's criticism of former President Bill Clinton's personal indiscretions. Gingrich emphasized that he did not commit a crime.
    "I have been through two divorces, I have been deposed both times, under oath. Both times, I told the truth in the deposition because I know that it, and I am not a lawyer, so I know it is a felony. Bill Clinton who is a lawyer, I mean he is a Yale graduate, Law School graduate, he knew he was lying under oath. He knew it was perjury. He knew it was a felony," he said.
    Gingrich continued to campaign throughout Florida on Wednesday (January 25), later appearing at a rally in Coral Springs.
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